Ankita Raina could not go past the second round at the French Open qualifiers, suffering a straight set defeat against Japan’s Kurumi Nara in Paris
ANKITA RAINA ENSURES A SINGLES MEDAL IN ASIAN GAMES
Ankita Raina outplayed Eudice Chong of Hong Kong 6-4, 6-1 after a hesitant start to make the women’s semifinals of tennis in the Asian Games in Palembang on Wednesday.
In doing so, Ankita assured herself of a singles medal, only the second after Sania Mirza’s spectacular silver in the 2006 edition in Doha.
Ankita will challenge the top seed Shuai Zhang of China.
Ankita also made the mixed doubles quarterfinals with Rohan Bopanna. The duo will play Christopher Rungkat and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia.
Ankita, the only Indian tennis player to compete in three events this time, was beaten in the women’s doubles in partnership with Prarthana Thombare by the Kazakh pair of Gozal Aintidinova and Anna Danilina in the pre-quarterfinals.
In men’s doubles, Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan made the semifinals with a 6-3, 5-7, 10-1 victory over Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Tusung Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei. The top seeds will be challenged by Sho Shimabukuro and Kaito Uesugi of Japan.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran fought his way past the former Asian junior champion Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam in three sets. He will play Kwon Sodnwoo of Korea in the quarterfinals.
Second seed Ramkumar Ramanathan, however, was beaten in three sets by the former junior world No.6, the 20-year-old Jurabek Karimov, with a career-best rank of 428.
Ramkumar in partnership with Sumit Nagal got beaten in the doubles 10-2 in the super tie-break by the Kazakhs, Alexander Bublik and Denis Yevseyev.
The results:
Men (pre-quarterfinals): Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Nam Hoang Ly (Vie) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; Jurabek Karimov (Uzb) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Rohan Bopanna & Divij Sharan bt Cheng-Peng Hsieh & Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) 6-3, 5-7, [10-1]; ; Alexander Bublik & Denis Yevseyev (Kaz) bt Sumit Nagal & Ramkumar Ramanathan 5-7, 6-4, [10-2].
Women (quarterfinals): Ankita Raina bt Eudice Chong (Hkg) 6-4, 6-1.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Gozal Anitdinova & Anna Danilina (Kaz) bt Ankita Raina & Prarthana Thombare 6-1, 6-3.
Mixed doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rohan Bopanna & Ankita Raina bt Eudice Wong & Chun Hun Wong (Hkg) 6-4, 6-4.
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