Solapur hosts another $25,000 women's tennis event

It will be another opportunity for the Indian players to try and capitalise on a $25,000 event at home in Solapur this week.

Ankita Raina figures as the second seed in the strong field. She will start against Jaqueline Adina Cristian of Romania.
Pranjala Yadlapalli is the only other direct entrant for the host, and will be up against qualifier Miyabi Inoue of Japan.

Zeel Desai will challenge the top seed Tamara Zidansek who had beaten Karman Kaur Thandi in the final last week in Pune. Rutuja Bhosale plays eighth seed Ya-Husan Lee of Chinese Taipei. Riya Bhatia will play qualifier Anna Morgina of Russia and Mihika Yadav will also play a qualifier, Julie Gervais of France.

The fact that none of the Indian players, including Bhuvana Kalva, Sowjanya Bavisetti and Natasha Palha could cross the first round in the qualifying event, should give a hint about the quality of players assembled.

It may look more like the foreign players capitalising on the Indian events at the end of the season, but that is the challenge for the Indian girls to counter, and provide some faith to the organisers.

More so, in the absence of Karman Kaur Thandi who looks to have closed the season for some rest and training.

The seedings: 1. Tamara Zidansek (SLO), 2. Ankita Raina, 3. Olga Doroshina (RUS), 4. Jia-Jing Lu (CHN), 5. Quirine Lemoine (NED), 6. Deniz Khazaniuk (ISR), 7. Kai-Lin Zhang (CHN), 8. Ya-Hsuan Lee (TPE).

The results:

Qualifying event (second and final round): Paula Cristina Goncalves (BRA) bt Valeria Savinykh (RUS) 6-4, 7-5; Mariam Bolkvadze (GEO) bt Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA) 6-2, 6-2; Kaylah Mcphee (AUS) bt Sarah Beth Grey (GBR) 6-4, 6-1; Julie Gervais (FRA) bt Ekaerina Yashina (RUS) 6-1, 6-2; Miyabi Inoue (JPN) bt Eden Silva (GBR) 7-6(4), 6-2; Anna Morgina (RUS) bt Gonzal Ainitdinova (KAZ) 6-3, 6-4; Chieh-Yu Hsu (TPE) bt Pia Cuk (SLO) 7-5, 6-3; Aleksandrina Naydenova (BUL) bt Melanie Klaffner (AUT) 6-2, 6-1.

First round: Valeria Savinykh bt Snehal Mane 6-3, 6-1; Paula Cristina Goncalves bt Pei-Chi Lee (TPE) 5-7, 6-4, 6-3; Mariam Bolkvadze bt Bhuvana Kalva 6-3, 6-2; Fatma Al Nabhani bt Mallaurie Noel (FRA) 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2; Kaylah Mcphee bt Ho Ching Wu (HKG) 6-2, 6-4; Sarah Beth Grey bt Maria Marfutina (RUS) 6-3, 6-2; Ekaterina Yashina bt Pragati Solankar 6-4, 6-2; Julie Gervais bt Anastasia Nefedova (USA) 6-4, 6-3; Miyabi Inoue bt Ana Veselinovic (MNE) 6-4, 6-2; Eden Silva bt Amreen Naaz 6-0, 6-0; Gozal Ainitdinova bt Nika Kukharchuk (RUS) 6-3, 0-6, 6-2; Anna Morgina bt Simona Waltert (SUI) 6-1, 6-1; Chieh-Yu Hsu bt Maryna Chernyshova (UKR) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Pia Cuk bt Natasha Palha 6-3, 6-1; Aleksandrina Naydenova bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-1, 6-3; Melanie Klaffner bt Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.