Renne, Laalitya cruise into 2nd round of qualifiers at ITF W15 Bengaluru

Renne Singla and Laalitya Kalluri scored upset victories to enter the second round of the qualifiers of the ITF Women’s $15,000 Bengaluru on Sunday. While Renne sent the fourth seed Smriti Bhasin home with a 6-4, 7-5 win, Laalitya won against sixth-seeded Niditra Rajmohan in three sets 6-1, 2-6, 10-6.

Renne, the 17-year-old lass from Haryana depended on her deep returns and waited for her older opponent to commit a mistake and soon raced to a 3-0 lead. Smriti bounced back winning the next two games. However, Renne returned the favour to lead 5-2. Serving for the set, Renne not only lost her serve but the next game as well before serving out for the set 6-4. The second set was even more keenly fought. After the rivals held their serve for the first four games, they broke each other twice and once again Renne was serving for the match at 5-3. The 19-year-old Telangana girl Smriti then restored parity by the 10^th game only to lose her serve in the next game for Renne to complete the formalities.

In the other upset match, Maharashtra’s Laalitya was a reduced to a mute spectator in the first set after winning the first game as her experienced opponent won the rest of the six games in a hurry. The second set was almost a reverse of the first set with Laalitya winning five games in a row after both were all square after the first four games. In the decider, Laalitya emerged as less error-prone player to make an entry into the final qualifying round.

The winners of the second round will get an entry into the main draw which begins tomorrow.

Results Qualifiers Round-1 (Pre-fix denotes seeding)

(all Indians except mentioned in brackets)

1-Shreya Tatavarthy bt Chandana Potugari lost to 6-2, 6-4; Hridayeshi Pai lost to Sonashe Bhatnagar 6-2, 6-3; 2-Sai Samitha bt Kriti Tomar 6-1, 6-3; Avishka Gupta lost to 16-Pooja Ingale 0-6, 4-6; Radhika Yadav lost to Prathiba Narayan Prasad 1-6, 0-6; 4-Smriti Bhasin lost to Renne Singla 4-6, 5-7; 3-Kaaviya Balasubramanian lost to Adithi Are (W/O); Sudipta Kumar lost to Bela Tamhankar  6-7 (4), 5-7; 5-Prathyusha Rachapudi bt Shilpi Swarupa Das 6-0, 6-1; Meghana P lost to Yashika Venu 2-6, 6-2, 8-10; 6-Niditra Rajmohan lost to Laalitya Kalluri 6-1, 2-6, 6-10; Sai Dedeepya Yedulla bt Ayushi Singh 6-3, 6-7 (4), 10-8; 7-Akanksha Dileep Nitture bt Anusha Kondaveeti 6-3, 6-2; Pragathi Narayan Prasad lost to Kashish Bhatia 1-6, 1-6; 8-Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty bt Yashaswini Panwar 6-1, 6-1; Priyanshi Bhandari lost to Dakshata Girishkumar Patel 6-3, 4-6, 8-10.