Prerna Bhambri sails into the second round in $25K tennis

Four-time national champion Prerna Bhambri put her vibrant attacking on display much to the joy of the local fans as she beat qualifier Alexandra Riley of the US 6-2, 6-0 in the first round of the Bhavna Swarup $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on grass courts of the Services Club here on Tuesday.

Stroking with her usual flair and hitting the flanks consistently, Prerna toyed with the American, who struggled to put together a meaningful challenge as she was unable to fathom the nuances of the game on the natural surface.

If she continues to play this well, Prerna should fancy her chances against second Nastja Kolar of Slovenia who played a steady game in taming the reigning grass court national champion Riya Bhatia, for the loss of four games.

Two-time national champion Mahak Jain was a bit subdued against the crafty third seed Natalija Kostic of Serbia and thus could not win more than six games. Interestingly, the 17-year-old Mahak had beaten the 360th ranked Serb in the qualifying event of a similar tournament in Pune in 2016.

Sai Samhitha packed a lot of punch in easing past qualifier Ashmitha Easwaramurthi, and will have a shot at the third seed.

Qualifier Nidhi Chilumula put up a brave fight against seventh seed Aleksandrina Naydenova of Bulgaria and went down in three sets.

Another qualifier, Jennifer Luikham, serving and stroking with impressive fluency, lacked the conviction to convert her chances when she led 3-1 in the first set against fourth seed Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia.

The results:
Singles (first round): Nastalija Kostic (Srb) bt Mahak Jain 6-2, 6-4; Sai Samhitha bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-2, 6-1; Aleksandrina Naydenova (Bul) bt NIdhi Chilumula 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Melanie Klaffner (Aut) bt Natalia Stedliska (Ger) 7-^(5), 6-1; Tereza Mihalikova (Svk) bt Jennifer Luikham 6-3, 6-3; Kyoka Okamura bt Dan Ni Wang (Chn) 6-0, 6-2; Karin Kennel (Sui) bt Anna Makhorkina (Rus) 6-4, 6-3; Prerna bhambri bt Alexandra Riley (US) 6-2, 6-0; Nastja Kolar (Slo) bt Riya Bhatia 6-1, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Aleksandrina Naydenova (Bul) & Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic (Ger) bt Jennifer Luikham & Saumya Vig 6-1, 6-1; Nidhi Chilumula & Ashmitha Easwaramurthi bt Leera Raju & Sai Dedeepya 6-0, 6-1; Natalia Siedliska (Ger) & Zeel Desai bt Deeksha Manju Prasad & Soha Sadiq 6-4, 6-0.