Natasha Palha puts up another fight as a lucky loser
Following her brave efforts in the qualifying event, National championship finalist Natasha Palha was rewarded with a lucky-loser spot, and she made another good fight before being beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Mariam Bolkvadze of Georgia in the NECC $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune on Monday.
Two other wild card entrants, Zeel Desai and Snehal Mane had it tough against the sixth seed Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine and fifth seed Junri Namigata of Japan.
The results:
Singles (first round): Junri Namigata (JPN) bt Snehal Mane 6-0, 6-0; Mariam Bolkvadze (GEO) bt Natasha Palha 6-4, 6-4; Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) bt Zeel Desai 6-1, 6-4; Katarzyna Piter (POL) btJessica Ho (USA) 6-0, 6-3; Chieh-Yu Hsu (TPE) bt Nika Kukharchuk (RUS) 7-6(2), 7-5; Julie Gervais (FRA) bt Amina Anshba (RUS) 7-6(5), 6-2; Katarzyna Kawa (POL) bt Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA) 7-5, 6-1; Aleksandrina Naydenova (BUL) bt Maryna Chernyshova (UKR) 6-4, 6-0.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Polina Leykina (RUS) & Diana Marcinkevica (LAT) bt Nigina Abdraimova (UZB) & Anna Morgina (RUS) 6-0, 5-7, 10-8; Beatrice Gumulya (INA) & Ana Veselinovic (MNE) bt Jia-Jing Lu (CHN) & Ekaterina Yashina (RUS) 6-3, 6-3; Sharon Fichman (CAN) & Valeria Savinykh (RUS) bt Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) & Erika Vogelsang (NED) 6-0, 6-4; Berfu Cengiz (TUR) & Jessy Rompies (INA) bt Emerald Able (USA) & Saumya Vig 7-5, 6-1.
