Ankita Raina bows out of French Open qualifiers

Ankita Raina could not go past the second round at the French Open qualifiers, suffering a straight set defeat against Japan’s Kurumi Nara in Paris on Thursday.

Raina, India’s top singles player, lost the second round contest 3-6 2-6 in one hour and 21 minutes.

“It (match) was not bad. I had chances in my service game but she returned very well today. If I had converted those games, then it would have been different. Also there were windy conditions today,” Raina said after her match.

Raina’s defeat means that no Indian will compete in the singles main draw of the clay court Grand Slam.

Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran have already bowed out of the men’s singles qualifiers.

Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will compete in the men’s doubles with their respective partners.

Birthday girl Riya Bhatia knocked out of ITF Women’s $15k Porto Open

Riya Bhatia, playing on her 23^rd birthday, had to endure a tough round two loss against Brazil’s Ingrid Gamarra Martins in a two hour 53 minutes long match at the ITF Women’s $15,000 Porto Open.

Ranked 351^st in the world and second highest among Indian women in singles, Bhatia went down in three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 2-6 to the Brazilian Martins.

Bhatia’s second round match was marred by 16 double faults to Martins’ two.

Source: PTI