ANKITA RAINA WINS SECOND SINGLES TITLE OF THE SEASON

Ankita Raina added one more title to her collection as she dismissed fourth seed Risa Ozaki of Japan 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Thailand on Saturday.

It was the second singles title this season for the 25-year-old Ankita who is coached by Hemant Bendrey in Pune. After winning the earlier title in Gwalior, Ankita went on to reach her career best rank of 181, and found her way into the qualifying draws of both French Open and Wimbledon. She won a match in Wimbledon and put up a good fare overall.

The 214th Ankita will now focus on her preparation for the Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia.

In the $100,000 event in France, Prarthana Thombare made the doubles final in partnership with Eva Wacanno of the Netherlands.

In the doubles final of the €127,000 Challenger, top seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Wesley Koolhof beat the Indian pair, Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan.

In another doubles final in the $100,000 women’s event in France, Prarthana Thombare in partnership with Eva Wacanno of the Netherlands was beaten 10-7 in the super tie-break by An Sophie Mestach of Belgium and Zheng Saisai of China.

The results:
€127,000 Challenger men, Braunschweig, Germany
Doubles (final): Santiago Gonzalez (Mex) & Wesley Koolhof (Ned) bt Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-3.

$75,000 Challenger men, Winnetka, US
Doubles (semifinals): Austin Krajicek (US) & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Jared Hiltzik & Tim Kopinski (US) 7-6(2), 6-4.

$100,000 ITF women, Contrexville, France

Doubles (final): An Sophie Mestach (Bel) & Zheng Saisai (Chn) bt Eva Wacanno (Ned) & Prarthana Thombare 3-6, 6-2, [10-7].

$25,000 ITF women, Nonthaburi, Thailand
Singles (final): Ankita Raina bt Risa Ozaki (Jpn) 6-2, 6-3.

$25,000 ITF women, Tianjin, China
Singles (semifinals): Liu Fangzhou (Chn) bt Karman Kaur Thandi 6-3, 6-2.