Ankita Raina moves ahead in singles and doubles in China

Ankita Raina had a fluent start as she outplayed eighth seed Valeriya Savinykh of Russia 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of the $100,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Suzhou, China, on Wednesday.

Ankita also made the doubles quarterfinals with Rosalie van der Hoek of the Netherlands.

Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan, seeded No.1 with David Vega Hernandez of Spain was beaten 7-6(6), 7-5 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals by Tallon Griekspoor and Botic van de Znadschulp in the Challenger in Ismaning, Germany.

In another Challenger in China, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Vishnu Vardhan tasted defeat against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Enrique Lopez of Spain in the doubles pre-quarterfinals.

Newly crowned national women’s champion Sowjanya Bavisetti recovered from the brink of defeat to get past Zoe Kruger of South Africa. Sowjanya won 3-6, 7-5, 4-1 when Zoe retired.


The results:
$162,480 Challenger, Ningbo, China
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Alejandro Davidovich Fokina & Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran & Vishnu Vardhan 7-6(3), 6-1.


€ 69,280 Challenger, Ismaning, Germany
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Tallon Griekspoor & Botic van de Zandschulp (NED) bt David Vega Hernandez (ESP) & Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-6(6), 7-5.


$25,000 ITF men, Lagos, Nigeria
Singles (first round): Jatin dahiya bt Christian Saidi Otupio (COD) 6-2, 6-2; Dhruv Sunish bt Wilson Oswalele Igbinovia (NGR) 6-1, 7-5; Benjamin Lock (ZIM) bt Aryan Goveas 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-5.


Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Jatin Dahiya & Dhruv Sunish bt Benjamin Fumi (GHA) & Arnaud Sewanou (BEN) 6-0, 6-2.


$15,000 ITF men, Getafe Madrid, Spain
Singles (first round): Digvijay Pratap Singh bt Matheo Fabre (FRA) 6-1, 6-1.


Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Alvaro Blanco Damea & Miguel Vallejo (ESP) bt Jjohn Echeverria (ESP) & Digvijay Pratap Singh 0-6, 7-5, [10-8].


$15,000 ITF men, Doha, Qatar
Singles (first round): Rishab Agarwal bt Aleksei Khomich (BLR) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.


$15,000 ITF men, Antalya, Turkey
Singles (first round): Mert Alkaya (TUR) bt Shahbaaz Khan 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.


$100,000 ITF women, Suzhou, China
Singles (first round): Ankita Raina bt Valeria Savinykh (RUS) 6-1, 6-1.


Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rosalie van der Hoek (NED) & Ankita Raina bt Meiqi Guo & WanNing Zhu (CHN) 6-2, 7-5.


$25,000 ITF women, Lagos, Nigeria
Singles (first round): Lexie Stevens (NED) bt Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy 7-5, 6-4; Riya Bhatia bt Carla Touly (FRA) 6-1, 4-0 (retired); Nika Kukharchuk (RUS) bt Saumya Vig 6-0, 6-2; Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Zoe Kruger (RSA) 3-6, 7-5, 4-1 (retired); Rutuja Bhosale bt Allyson Nancy Onya (COD) 6-1, 6-1; Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) bt Sathwika Sama 6-1, 6-4.


Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Laura Pigossi (BRA) & Rutuja Bhosale bt Adesuwa Osabuohien (US) & Barakat Oyinlomo Quadre (NGR) 6-7(7), 6-2, [10-8]; Sandra Samir (EGY) & Prarthana Thombare bt Celestine Avomo Ella (GAB) & Divine Dasam Nweke (DEN) 6-2, 6-3.


$15,000 ITF women, Hua Hin, Thailand
Singles (first round): Deria Nur Haliza (INA) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-3, 7-5.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)