$25K Pune ITF, Nov 6-12 2017

[jayakris]

Riya Bhatia here has a good opportunity of moving to R2

Haha. The first salvo has been fired. I knew this was coming

[sameerph]

I wish Nandini and Jennifer could show up and try qualies.

True, I wonder why these 2 are not playing here. They would have easily qualified with this qualifying draw and Nandini would have finally got a rankings. Not to be.

[jaydeep]

Expected results, only an upset dominating win from Sai over higher ranked Dhruthi.

At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Pune, India

[R1] (Q) Rishika Sunkara (IND,933) l Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (THA,676) 64 06 16
[R1] Natasha Palha (IND,743) l (5) Pei-Chi Lee (TPE,437) 57 36
[R1] Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND,799) l Stefanie Tan (SGP,616) 06 26
[R1] (WC) Zeel Desai (IND,778) bt (Q) Shivani Swarup Ingle (IND,UNR) 62 61
[R1] Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (IND,913) bt Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal (IND,733) 60 63
[R1] (WC) Mahak Jain (IND,872) bt (Q) Ramya Natarajan (IND,1041) 75 16 61

[jaydeep]

A superb straight-sets upset win by young Mihika against top-450 Russian girl ... Expected, straight sets win for Rutuja.

[R1] (WC) Mihika Yadav (IND,UNR) bt (7) Yana Sizikova (RUS,449) 63 75
[R1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,596) bt (WC) Snehal Mane (IND,UNR) 64 62

[sameerph]

Excellent upset by Mihika taking out a seed. We need some of these upsets in a home tournament.

Jaydeep - Mihika does not seem have a ranking currently. She has dropped her last year's futures final points.

[jaydeep]

Jaydeep - Mihika does not seem have a ranking currently. She has dropped her last year's futures final points.

Oh thanks for updating, removing from the results.

[jaydeep]

The lucky escape for Karman in 3 hrs 10 mins match ... Karman was leading 5-2 with a double break in the third set ... But Riya broke her twice while she was serving for the match in 8th and 10th games ... In the tie-break, again Karman was leading 5-2, this time also Riya caught her at 5-all ... Karman won next 2 points for entering into the second round ... In this match, Karman won 114 pts and Riya won 117 ... Both players had 14 break point chances and they converted 4 of them.

[R1] (3) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,307) bt (Q) Riya Bhatia (IND,534) 64 46 76(5)

[jayakris]

Excellent upset by Mihika taking out a seed. We need some of these upsets in a home tournament.

I was following the scores till 63 44 when Mihika got broken to 63 45. I thought it was over and the Russian was going to turn the table, so I went to sleep. I guess Mihika proved me wrong, and won the last three games with 2 breaks. Wow!! Wonderful upset.

[jayakris]

The R2 draw:

[1] Deniz KHAZANIUK (ISR) vs Bunyawi THAMCHAIWAT (THA)
[5] Pei-Chi LEE (TPE) vs Karin KENNEL (SUI)
[3] Karman Kaur THANDI (IND) vs Stefanie TAN (SGP)
[6] Ana VESELINOVIC (MNE) vs Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)
(WC) Zeel DESAI (IND) vs (WC) Mihika YADAV (IND)
[4] Valeriya STRAKHOVA (UKR) vs (Q) Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI (IND)
[8] Tereza MIHALIKOVA (SVK) vs (WC) Mahak JAIN (IND)
[2] Jaqueline Adina CRISTIAN (ROU) vs Rutuja BHOSALE (IND)

We have 6 remaining, and at least one Indian will be in the QF. Can Karman win like she should/can, and can Mahak pull an upset too? It would be tough for Sai and Rutuja. The way Karman keeps dropping the 2nd set and running into trouble all the time, I am never sure of her.

[sameerph]

True, it was quite surprising how much trouble Riya gave to Karman. I expected an easier win for Karman but she gave up the winning position so many times.

We missed this last first round result -

[R1] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,497) l. Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA,516) 46 76(4) 46

Disappointing loss for Pranjala. Fatma is a good player but Pranjala needs to win these matches if she wants to move ahead.

[jayakris]

Tuesday scores for our ladies:

[R2] (3) Karman Kaur THANDI (IND,310) d. Stefanie TAN (SGP,626), 63 63
[R2] (WC) Zeel DESAI (IND,781) d. (WC) Mihika YADAV (IND,UNR), 75 75
[R2] (Q) Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI (IND,960) l. (4) Valeriya STRAKHOVA (UKR,355) 36 57
[R2] (WC) Mahak JAIN (IND,878) l. (8) Tereza MIHALIKOVA (SVK,461) 63 36 16
[R2] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,600) l. (2) Jaqueline Adina CRISTIAN (ROU,254), 46 46

So,
[QF] (3) Karman Kaur THANDI (IND,310) vs (6) Ana VESELINOVIC (MNE,441)
[QF] (WC) Zeel DESAI (IND,781) vs (4) Valeriya STRAKHOVA (UKR,355)

Decent fight in some patches from our players but no upsets. Karman had no serious problems and won the match nicely. Actually she still dropped serve at 5-2 while serving for the match. Two double faults from 40-30 match point, to lose serve? Why?? Anyway, she broke Stefanie immediately and wrapped it up.

[Saniapower]

Today Karman registered a nice and comfortable win against Stefanie(#626). Karman was extremely lucky yesterday. Actually Riya Bhatia had won more points than Karman. But somehow she escaped. But it will be difficult from now on against higher ranked players. I doubt she will pass the next hurdle(Tomasevic#441)

[sameerph]

Good to see Karman coming thru in straight sets. Hope she wins at least 1 more match and justifies her seeding.

Also nice fight by all the 3 losing Indian players against much higher ranked players, particularly 16 year old Mahak taking a set off Mihialikova who is 2016 Australian open juniors runner up.

[bujilover]

Zeel should be winning at least one of her matches today

[jaydeep]

A really good dominating win by Zeel against top-350 type Ukrainian opponent, Strakhova, in the straight sets ... Good to see, someone is taking advantage of the home tournament.

[QF] (WC) Zeel Desai (IND,781) bt (4) Valeriya Strakhova (UKR,355) 63 62