Karman to face Sahaja in first round again

Champion of the last tournament Karman Kaur Thandi will have the same opponent for the first round, Sahaja Yamalapalli, in the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis to be played at the Tennis Project, Baliawas, from Tuesday.

Sahaja had stretched Karman to three sets and possibly prepared her well for the challenges ahead in the last tournament at the same venue. It will be interesting to see how the two handle the challenge.

Karman figures in the top quarter and could face top seed Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia, if both progress that far.

Rutuja Bhosale joins the event as the sixth seed and will play a qualifier in the first round.

Ankita Raina is the second seed and will have a qualifier in the first round. After being beaten by Vaidehi Chaudhari in the first round last week, Ankita has been training well and is better prepared for the second event.

Last week’s runner-up, world No. 3 junior Sofia Costoulas of Belgium is in the fourth quarter, in which the two Thais, Luksika Kumkhum and Punnin Kovapitukted face each other in the first round.

The four wild cards were given to Ananyaa Bhargava, Vineetha Mummadi, Kashish Bhatia and Yubarani Banerjee.

The hot and humid conditions took its toll. Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, a quarterfinalist last week, could not recover from her illness and withdrew from the second event. Nidhi Chilumula could not play her second qualifying round on Monday, and gave a walkover to Sanjana Sirimalla.

Overall, players will need a strong game, sound fitness and the ability to tackle the situation to make progress.

The seedings: 1. Diana Marcinkevica (Lat), 2. Ankita Raina, 3. Viktoria Morvayova (Svk), 4. Ekaterina Yashina (Rus), 5. Luksika Kumkhum (Tha), 6. Rutuja Bhosale, 7. Misaki Matsuda (Jpn), 8. Karman Kaur Thandi.

The results: Qualifying singles (second round): Sahira Singh bt Apurav Vemuri 6-4, 6-1; Ishwari Matere bt Mansi Vadyala (US) 6-2, 3-2 (retired); Farhat Aleen Qamar bt Vanshita Pathania 6-2, 4-6, [10-3]; Anjali Rathi bt Bela Tamhankar 6-4, 6-4; Elena Pridankina (Rus) bt Joell Nichole 6-2, 6-1; Prathiba Narayan bt Sachi Sharma 6-2, 7-6(2); Shreya Tatavarthy t Siri Patil 6-1, 6-1; Suhitha Maruri bt Shria Atturu (US) 6-1 (retired); Sanjana Sirimalla w.o. Nidhi Chilumula; Himaanshika Singh bt Jagmeet Kaur Grewal 7-6(3), 1-0 (retired); Ikumi Yamazaki (Jpn) bt Arthi Muniyan 6-1, 6-2.