$15K Women's ITF - Indonesia & Hong Kong July 2018

[bujilover]

Few of our players have entered a couple of $15K tournaments in Indonesia and Hong Kong that starts next week.

At Indonesia:
Mahak Jain, Sai Samhitha Chamarthi, Rishika Sunkara & Snehal Mane are in MD. 6 other players in the ALT list - notably Bhuvana Kalva, Sri Vaishnavi Peddy Reddy.

At Hong Kong:
Zeel Desai, Kanika Vaidya, Prerna Bhambri, Mihika Yadav are in MD. HKG's Eudice Chong will be a strong contender to win this tournament.

Good luck to our players! A real pity India has managed to host only 2 ITFs in the first half of the year, even though there is a handful towards the off-season.

[bujilover]

Day 1 results:

At $15,000 Hong Kong ITF:

Akari INOUE (JPN,1090) 4-6 7-5 7-6(6) Mihika YADAV (IND,1059)
Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,941) 6-0 7-5 Venia YEUNG (HKG,UNR)
Zeel DESAI (IND,659) [2] 7-6(4) 6-2 Ramona MATARUGA (AUS,UNR)

Sakura HOSOGI (JPN,UNR) 6-4 1-2 Kanika VAIDYA [3] (IND,669) To be continued
Chihiro TAKAYAMA (JPN,1168) vs Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND,UNR)

[PKBasu]

Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND, UNR; CH 867 in 2007) 6-2 7-5 Chihiro TAKAYAMA (JPN, 1168)
Sakura HOSOGI (JPN, UNR; Jr CH 97) 6-4 6-4 Kanika VAIDYA (IND, 669) [3]

[PKBasu]

In Solo (Surakarta), Indonesia

Mahak JAIN (IND, 772) [5] 6-0 6-2 Q-Mary Ann LIU (AUS, UNR)
Q-Bhuvana KALVA (IND) 3-6 6-0 7-5 Deria NUR HALIZA (INA)
Q-Saumya VIG (IND) 4-6 7-6(6) 6-4 Yu-Ting HSIEH (TPE)
Zhuoma NI MA (CHN) [6] 6-2 6-1 Nithya Raj BABU RAJ (IND)
Ayaka OKUNO (JPN) [3] 6-1 6-4 Snehal MANE (IND)
Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI (IND) [7] 6-1 7-5 Rishika SUNKARA (IND)

Mahak Jain, who just turned 17 last month, should be playing (and winning) the Wimbledon girls singles!

[sameerph]

At $15K ITF Women, Hongkong

[R2] Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND,NR) d. (7) Chin-Wei CHAN (TPE,895) 46 63 76(8)
[R2] Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,941) l. (5) Ayumi KOSHIISHI (JPN,810) 26 26
[R2] (2) Zeel DESAI (IND,659) d. (Q) Yuenu LI (CHN,NR) 61 60

Very good upset win by Ashmatha over a former top 150 player.

Next,

[QF] Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND,NR) vs. (4) Ho Ching WU (HKG,756)

[QF] (2) Zeel DESAI (IND,659) vs. (5) Ayumi KOSHIISHI (JPN,810)

[sameerph]

In Indonesia, Mahak is the only one to reach the QF.

At $15K ITF Women, Solo, Indonesia

[R2] (5) Mahak JAIN (IND,772) d. Ani VANGELOVA (BUL,1137) 62 62
[R2] (Q) Bhuvana KALVA (IND,NR) l. (4) Aldila SUTJIADI (INA,751) 46 26
[R2] (Q) Saumya VIG (IND,NR) l. Zhuoma NI MA (CHN,777) 36 06
[R2] (7) Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI (IND,855) l. Zhima DU (CHN,NR) 26 46

Next,

[QF] (5) Mahak JAIN (IND,772) vs. (1) YeXin MA (CHN,554)

[PKBasu]

Mahak has been impressive after a long lay-off. Let's hope she has enough in the tank to beat the top-seed!
Good to see Zeel continuing her stead run of form.
Ashmitha's run is pretty astonishing. She has never been ranked in the top-850 (her peak ranking of 867 was 11 years ago!), but seems to be in great form. Perhaps started a career and/or family and decided to get back to playing tennis at 28 (her age now). As a junior, she was ranked 203 before she turned 15, but then didn't play as much. After her peak pro singles year (at age 16-17), she has occasionally played doubles (enough to maintain a doubles ranking), and in the past year has played all over the place (Egypt, Bahrain, now Hong Kong), but finally managed to win points this week (having qualified in, beating a local player in the single round of qualifying). Previously, she would often win 3 rounds of qualifiers, then lose in R1 of the main draw.
Anybody has the story/scoop on her?

[meyyis]

At $15K ITF Women, Hongkong

[QF] Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND,NR) l. (4) Ho Ching WU (HKG,756) : 3-6, 1-6
[QF] (2) Zeel DESAI (IND,659) l. (5) Ayumi KOSHIISHI (JPN,810) : 5-7, 1-6

[meyyis]

At $15K ITF Women, Hongkong

Doubles:

[R1] (1) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) / Ying Zhang (CHN) d. Prerna Bhambri (IND) / Avika Sagwal (IND) : 6-1, 6-3
[R1] (4) Kwan Yau NG (HKG) / Hi Ching Wu (HKG) d. Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND) / Yuenu Li (CHN) : 6-3, 6-1
[R1] (2) Zeel Desai (IND) / Akari Inoue (JPN) d. Haine Ogata (JPN) / Chihiro Takayama (JPN) : 4-6, 6-1, 10-2

[QF] (2) Zeel Desai (IND) / Akari Inoue (JPN) d. (WC) Yan-Tung Ki (HKG) / Wing Kiu Jacqueline Lam (HKG) : 6-4, 6-1
[SF] (2) Zeel Desai (IND) / Akari Inoue (JPN) d. Eudice Chong (HKG) / Man Ying Maggie Ng (HKG) : 7-5, 6-3

Next,

[F] (2) Zeel Desai (IND) / Akari Inoue (JPN) vs. (4) Kwan Yau NG (HKG) / Hi Ching Wu (HKG)

[meyyis]

At $15K ITF Women, Solo, Indonesia

Mahak Jain steam rolls the top seed to win in straight sets 3 & 1.

[QF] (5) Mahak JAIN (IND,772) d. (1) YeXin MA (CHN,554) : 6-3, 6-1

Next,

[SF] (5) Mahak JAIN (IND,772) vs. (4) Aldila Sutjiadi (INA,751)

[jayakris]

I will begin to feel okay about Mahak skipping the juniors, if she continues to get 3 or 4 matches often at pro events, like this. Great job!!

[PKBasu]

Mahak is looking increasingly like the next Sania Mirza. So perhaps she skipped Wimbledon juniors because she had spent the past few months honing/upgrading her game, and is now ready to make some serious noise on the ITF/WTA tour. Beating the top seed 3 and 1 is very impressive indeed! (Although it does underline the fact that Mahak would have been a strong contender to win the junior Wimbledon title -- the sort of thing that would be guaranteed to gain the attention of potential corporate sponsors in India).

[PKBasu]

Indian women's tennis is having quite a week. Ankita and Karman in $25K SFs, Mahak in a $15K SF (having thrashed the top seed) and Zeel in the doubles final in another (although she disappointingly lost the singles QF 57 16 to the 5th seeded Japanese, while Zeel herself was second seed).

[Sin Hombre]

Mahak should be the next Mahak tbh.

She lost the first set in a tiebreak but has come back to win the second set 6-2; leads 3-1 in the decider.

[PKBasu]

[SF] (5) Mahak JAIN (IND,772) vs. (4) Aldila Sutjiadi (INA,751) 67(0) 62 31