Ankita Raina loses way from winning path

Ankita Raina played her heart out, but it was eventually a heart-break for her as Kai-Lin Zhang prevailed 1-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(7) in the pre-quarterfinals of the $125,000 WTA tennis tournament in Anning, China, on Thursday.

It was a case of missed opportunities for the 178th ranked Ankita, who had beaten the former world No.4 Samantha Stosur of Australia in a thriller in the first round.

Ankita missed three match points on the Chinese serve in the 12th game of the decider. She did save five match points from being down 2-6 in the tie-break, but the Chinese pulled through in another three-hour thriller.

After a whirlwind start, Ankita did have the match in control in the decider in which she led 5-1, but could not serve it out.

The 26-year-old Ankita converted nine of 24 break points that she forced, while the Chinese, who served three aces and 12 double faults, capitalised on seven of 18 break points.

Ankita collected 15 WTA points and $2000.

Meanwhile, in the ATP Tour doubles quarterfinals in Budapest, Divij Sharan in partnership with Marcel Demoliner of Brazil was beaten 7-6(6), 5-7, 10-7 by the third seeds Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski of Britain.

In the Challenger in Nanchang, Ramkumar Ramanathan cruised into the quarterfinals, and will play Zhizhen Zhang of China. In doubles quarterfinals, however, Sriram Balaji, seeded No.1 with Jamie Cerretani was beaten 6-4, 6-3 by the Aussie pair of Alex Bolt and Akira Santillan.

In the Challenger in Tallahassee, the top seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Purav Raja were edged out 7-6(6), 6-4 by Guilherme Clezar and Marc Polmans in the doubles pre-quarterfinals.

The results:

€ 586,140 ATP, Budapest, Hungary
Doubles (quarterfinals):Ken Skupski & Neal Skupski (GBR) bt Marcelo Demoliner (BRA) & Divij Sharan 7-6(6), 5-7, [10-7].

Pre-quarterfinals: Dominic Inglot (GBR) & Rohan Bopanna bt Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) & John Millman (AUS) 6-3, 7-5.

$125,000 WTA, Anning, China
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Kai-Lin Zhang (CHN) bt Ankita Raina 1-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(7).

Doubles (quarterfinals): Maddison Inglis (AUS) & Miyabi Inoue (JPN) w.o. Ashley Kratzer (US) & Ankita Raina.

$54,160 Challenger, Nanchang, China
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Kaichi Uchida (JPN) 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Alex Bolt & Akira Santillan (AUS) bt Jamie Cerretani (US) & Sriram Balaji 6-4, 6-3.

$54,160 Challenger, Tallahassee, US
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Guilherme Clezar (BRA) & Marc Polmans (AUS) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan & Purav Raja 7-6(6), 6-4.

$25,000 ITF men, Abuja, Nigeria
Singles (pre-qaurterfinals): Dan Added (FRA) bt Arjun Kadhe 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-4; First round: Arjun Kadhe bt William Bushamuka (US) 6-3, 6-3.

$25,000 ITF men, Andijan, Uzbekistan
Singles (first round): Sidharth Rawat bt Matvey Minin (Rus) 6-1, 7-6(2).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Konstantin Kravchuk & Alexander Pavlioutchenkov (RUS) bt Maksim Ratniuk (Rus) & Shahbaaz Khan 7-6(2), 6-0; Jose Fco. Vidal Azorin (ESP) & Aryan Goveas bt Anton Chekhov (RUS) & Shonigmatjon Shofayziyev (UZB) 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Cairo, Egypt
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Petr Hajek (CZE) bt VM Ranjeet 6-0, 6-4; First round: VM Ranjeet bt Moritz Trocker (ITA) 6-2, 6-1; Adam Moundir (SUI) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar 6-4, 7-6(5).

$15,000 ITF women, Andijan, Uzbekistan
Singles (first round): Riya Bhatia bt Natalija Kostic (SRB) 6-4, 6-4.

Doubles (Pre-quarterfinals): Natalija Kostic (SRB) & Rutuja Bhosale bt Arina Folts & Milana Maslenkova (UZB) 6-0, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Cairo, Egypt
Singles (first round): Izabela Gabriela Novac (ROU) bt Rekha Boyalapalli 6-1, 6-0.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)