Karman, Ramkumar crash early in Miami; Prajnesh lifts sagging spirits

World No.77 Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland proved too hot for wild card Karman Thandi as she raced to a 6-0, 3-0 victory in the first qualifying round of the $9,035,428 WTA tennis tournament in Miami.

Though it was a bit of a demoralising defeat, as Karman retired after nine games in the match owing to a shoulder injury, she did gain two WTA points and $3,395.

In the men’s $9,314,875 ATP event in Miami, Ramkumar Ramanathan was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by Lorenzo Sonego of Italy. The stringent ATP rules do not offer any points for first round loss, but Ramkumar pocketed $3,395.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who had a good outing in Indian Wells, sailed past Adrian Menendez-Maceiras of Spain 6-2, 6-4.

In the second and final qualifying round, Prajnesh will play wild card Jay Clarke of Britain who ousted Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia for the loss of five games.

Sasi Kumar Mukund had a nice start in the Challenger in China, as he outplayed Baptiste Crepatte of France for the loss of three games in the first round.

Adil Kalyanpur did very well to qualify for the main draw of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament in Egypt, by beating the top seed Olexiy Kolisnyk of Ukraine 6-4, 6-2 in the second and final round.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Australia, two-time national champion Mahak Jain lost a close match 8-10 in the super tie-break against Yuuki Tanaka of Japan, who went on to qualify by knocking out the top-seed Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia 6-0, 3-6, [10-7].

In the ITF women’s event in Egypt, Vaidehi Chaudhari won two rounds to make the main draw. She drew fourth seed Julia Wachaczyk of Germany in the first round of the main event.

The results:

$9,314,875 ATP-1000, Miami, US
Qualifying singles (first round): Lorenzo Sonego (Ita) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 6-1; Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (Esp) 6-2, 6-4.

$9,035,428 WTA, Miami, US
Qualifying singles (first round): Viktorija Golubic (Sui) bt Karman Thandi 6-0, 3-0 (retired).

$54,160 Challenger, Zhangjiagang, China
Qualifying singles (first round): Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Baptiste Crepatte (Fra) 6-2, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF men, Manama, Bahrain
Qualifying singles (first round): Vitaly Sachko (Ukr) bt Avneet Singh 6-0, 6-0; Ivan Zaytsev (Rus) bt Shahbaaz Khan 7-6(3), 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Qualifying singles (second and final round): Adil Kalyanpur bt Olexiy Kolisnyk (Ukr) 6-4, 6-2; Kacper Zuk (Pol) bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-2, 6-3.
First round: Adil Kalyanpur bt Omar El Shehawy (Egy) 6-0, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Antalya, Turkey
Qualifying singles (first round): Sandro Kopp (Aut) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-4, 6-1.

$25,000 ITF women, Canberra, Australia
Qualifying singles (first round): Yuuki Tanaka (Jpn) bt Mahak Jain 5-7, 6-4, [10-8]

$15,000 ITF women, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Qualifying singles (second and final round): Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Veronika Vlkovska (Cze) 3-6, 6-1, [10-5]. First round: Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Jennifer Rosa Dourado (Bra) 6-2, 6-0.