Yubarani Banerjee outplays Avika Sagwal in Asian women's tennis
Yubarani Banerjee unleashed the big serves and whipping strokes to outgun fourth seed Avika Sagwal 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of the Asian Tour women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.
Having moved to train with coach Aditya Madkekar in Pune recently, Yubarani revealed new dimensions in her game to outwit her wiry opponent who tried hard to keep pace with her.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Yubarani will play qualifier Ananyaa Bhargava who endured three sets in taming lucky-loser Deepshikha Saw.
Top seed Sai Samhitha timed her single-handed backhand with a touch of assurance in sailing past Rutvi Chaudhari, while second seed Vaidehi Chaudhari smashed her way past Seerat Pannu with equal ease.
Sai will face one of the bright juniors in the country, Salsa Aher, in the second round. Four-time national champion Prerna Bhambri handled the sharp game of Adrija Biswas with conviction in setting up a second round against Arthi Muniyan, who weathered a three-set fight against qualifier Bela Tamhankar.
The tall and strongly-built Kashish Bhatia fought hard to tame qualifier Srinidhi Sridhar in three sets. She will face Sonashe Bhatnagar.
In an entertaining match, Soha Sadiq beat wild card Sanvi Ahluwalia, who demonstrated a good all-round game, and free flowing strokes, in her first women’s circuit match.
The results (first round): Sai Samhitha bt Rutvi Chaudhari 6-1, 6-0; Salsa Aher bt Vaibhavi Trivedi 6-3, 6-0; Priyanka Rodricks bt Kriti Tomar 6-2, 6-1; Sara Yadav bt Sunskrithi Damera 7-5, 6-1; Prerna Bhambri bt Adrija Biswas 6-0, 6-0; Arthi Muniyan bt Bela Tamhankar 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; Kashish Bhatia bt Srinidhi Sridhar 7-5, 4-6, 6-3; Sonashe Bhatnagar bt Shefali Arora 6-3, 6-3; Prathiba Narayan Prasad bt Tejasvi Kate 6-4, 6-2; Vanshita Pathania bt Shilpi Das 6-0, 6-1; Ananyaa Bhargava bt Deepshikha Saw 6-1, 3-6, 6-1; Yubarai Banerjee bt Avika Sagwal 6-1, 6-1; Akanksha NItture bt Harshita Chugh 6-4, 6-0; Soha Sadiq bt Sanvi Ahluwalia 6-2, 6-2; SB Apoorva bt Rashi Malviya 6-3, 7-6(8); Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Seerat Pannu 6-1, 6-0.
(Courtesy: The Hindu)
