Karman kaur lets kuznetsova off the hook in WTA tennis in guangzhou

Qualifier Karman Kaur Thandi pushed former world No.2 Svetlana Kuznetsova to bring out her best game and was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the $250,000 WTA tennis tournament in China on Tuesday.

It may be recalled that Sania Mirza had overcome a twisted ankle to beat the then US Open champion Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2 in Dubai in 2005.

The 33-year-old Kuznetsova, ranked 110, converted five of 13 breakpoints as against three of seven by the wiry Karman.

The 20-year-old Karman fired four aces to two by the Russian, but the latter had a 71% first serve percentage as against 52% for Karman.

In the men’s Challenger in Romania, Sumit Nagal was beaten 6-2, 6-4 in the first round by third seed Pedro Sousa of Portugal.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Australia, Rutuja Bhosale won both her singles and doubles match.

The results:

$250,000 WTA, Guangzhou, China
Singles (first round): Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Karman Kaur Thandi
3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

€43,000 Challenger men, Sibiu, Romania
Singles (first round): Pedro Sousa (Por) bt Sumit Nagal 6-2, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Cairo, Egypt
Singles (first round): Jayesh Pungliya bt Vasisht Cheruku 6-3, 6-4; Adrijan Exposito (Esp) bt Tejas Chaukulkar 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Tarun Anirudh Chilakalapudi & PC Vignesh bt Simone Cacciapuoti & Nicolo Inserra (Ita) 3-6, 6-2, [10-5]; Alexander Ovcharov (Rus) & Jayesh Pungliya bt Sheil Kotecha (Ken) & Arjun Mahadevan 6-1, 6-3; Anirudh Chandrasekar & Aryan Goveas bt Tejas Chaukulkar & Vasisht Cheruku 6-2, 6-7(3), [10-6].

$25,000 ITF women, Cairns, Australia
Singles (first round): Rutuja Bhosale bt Georgia Brescia (Ita) 6-3, 6-2. Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Alison Bai (Aus) & Rutuja Bhosale bt Gabriella Da Silva Fick & Sara Tomic (Aus) 6-0, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Anning, China
Singles (first round): Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Chihiro Takayama (Jpn) 6-1, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Qianxin Kong (Chn) & Ashmitha
Easwaramurthi bt Yuka Hosoki (Jpn) & Si Qi Liu (Chn) 2-6, 6-3, [10-2].

$15,000 ITF women, Cairo, Egypt
Singles (first round): Fanny Ostllnd (Swe) bt Snehal Mane 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Iulia Bianca Ilinca (Rou) & Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi bt Aya El Sayed (Egy) & Delana Milenkovic (Srb)
6-3, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Dami Edibson Messiah (Esp) bt Likhitha Kalava 6-2, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF women, Antalya, Turkey
Singles (first round): Niditra Rajmohan bt Zarah Mughal (GBR) 6-2, 6-1.