Ankita Raina in second qualifying round of US Open

Ankita Raina knocked out ninth seed Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 in the first qualifying round of the US Open in New York.

It was the third victory in as many meetings for Ankita over the Belgian whom she had beaten earlier in 2009 in the junior circuit and in 2014 in her back yard in Belgium in a $25,000 ITF women’s event. Both those wins were on clay courts.

Ankita, who was busy around the same time last year in winning the Asian Games bronze medal in Palembang, and thus had to skip the US Open, will next play Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic.

In the men’s event, Ramkumar Ramanathan’s aspirations were curtailed as he was beaten 7-5, 7-6(9) in the first qualifying round by Filippo Baldi of Italy.

Sumit Nagal is the third Indian in the US Open qualifying event. He has been drawn to play Tatsuma Ito of Japan.

The results:

Men: Qualifying singles (first round): Filippo Baldi (Ita) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-5, 7-6(9).

Women: Qualifying singles (first round): Ankita Raina bt Ysaline Bonaventure (Bel) 6-1, 1-6, 6-2.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)