European women's ITF events

[jayakris]

I think we have discussed Naiktha earlier here in Indian origin players thread. She reached a career high of top 200 in 2020. But, seems to have fallen back post covid break and looks to have to reached QF after long time. Hope Ankita stops her progress there though.

Naikhta played a humdinger of a match today today against Christie Freya who had upset the second seed in the R1. It was only a 64 36 64 match but took 3 hours. Must have been just sparring back and forth constantly. The final set must have taken an hour and 15 minutes and the final game itself probably 10-15 minutes as there were probably 10 deuces and 5 or 6 match points for Naikhta, before she got the break. The other lady, same age as Naihkta, was also a top-300 player but has fallen back in ranking too.

Ankita has had a couple of easy wins so far, and should be less tired than her tomorrow. But she got upset in the double QF that they had a buy into.

[R1] (1) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Mana Ayukawa (JPN) l. Eri Shimizu (JPN)/ Ramu Ueda (JPN), 46 36

[jayakris]

Prarthana Thombare, playing with Emily Appleton (GBR) and seeded first, is in the doubles SF at the W25 in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. She is still doing her thing and deserves kudos for the dedication.

[jayakris]

At the W25 in Aldershot, GBR (hard)

[QF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,340) d. Naiktha Bains (GBR,432), 67(3) 61 63
so
[SF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,340) vs Haruka Kaji (JPN,599)

Ankita should have finished this in two easy sets. When I watched for a brief time, she was up 5-3 with a set point in the first set on Naikhta's serve. It went to deuces and NB held, but only because of a couple of loose shots from Ankita. At deuce, AR lost focus for no reasons and hit a crosscourt forehand 3 feet out left, gifting a point to Naikhta. The goofy play continued into the TB too. But then AR got a grip of things and broke NB immediately to go up 2-0 in the second set, and it was smooth sailing from there on. The SF opponent is a former top-300 player who has upset the 4th seed in R2, but hopefully AR will make the final.

[sameerph]

Yes, Ankita has not made a final of a tournament since February 2020 when she had won her last title in Jodhpur. She had made 2 other semi finals this year, hope this time she goes further.

In the meantime, in Spain, Rutuja and her Australian parther who were top seeds lost in SF in straight sets against third seeded team.

But, in Serbia top seeded team of Prarthana and Emily Appelton have reached the final and will meet second seeds there.

[Dinesh]

Ankita made a marathon comeback after losing the first set tie-breaker to make her first singles final of the year.

[SF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,340) 6-7 7-5 6-0 Haruka Kaji (JPN,599)

She will play against Joanna Garland (#317) from Taiwan. Hope she wins the title tomorrow.

[jayakris]

I watched the match off and on. Ankita had no business taking that long to win this match. Everytime I looked up she was up, only to play loose shots, make unforced errors and get evened. So many times. I think she had finally had it in the third set and played her game

The matches are taking way too long there, because there are no ball boys... They slowly walk around, collect the ball, take their time. So it took like 3 hours for a match that should have been done in 2 hours. No spectators, nothing. Nobody cares in the piddly island, I guess.

[jayakris]

At the W25 in Aldershot, GBR (hard)

[F] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,340) l. (8) Joanna Garland (TPE,495), 26 46

In the stretch I watched in the second set, when Ankita was down 1-3 and broke back to make it 3-3 and 4-4, she seemed to be playing fine and not making too many errors. But Joanna was playing very well and not giving her anything. Neither seemed interested in sparring but both were good at it whenever they got into it. Ankita saved herself from a break point in the 8th game, by taking some balls on the rise and hitting winners. It was good tennis, but ultimately Joanna prevailed in the 10th game.

Joanna is a 21 year old British player (dad is British, mom from Taiwan) who was among the upper level talents there but switched allegiance to TPE.

So, Ankita, Mukund, and Jennifer - all lost in futures finals this week (in Europe, Asia and Africa) to lower ranked Asian players, and all in straight sets

[sameerph]

At the W25 in Aldershot, GBR (hard)

[F] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,340) l. (8) Joanna Garland (TPE,495), 26 46

In the stretch I watched in the second set, when Ankita was down 1-3 and broke back to make it 3-3 and 4-4, she seemed to be playing fine and not making too many errors. But Joanna was playing very well and not giving her anything. Neither seemed interested in sparring but both were good at it whenever they got into it. Ankita saved herself from a break point in the 8th game, by taking some balls on the rise and hitting winners. It was good tennis, but ultimately Joanna prevailed in the 10th game.

I watched the earlier period of the match when Ankita went down a set and till it was 1-1 in second set. Ankita waa making far too many unforced errors till then, at least 1-2 every game. Looks like she was able to control those in later part of the match. But it may be too little too late.

Anyway, Ankita had fallen to 357 this week and will move up to around 325 next week when these points get updated.

Will continue in Britain next week.

[jayakris]

At the W25 in Roehampton, GBR

Humera Beharmus, 12th seed in qulifying, beat a 15 year old junior player Erin Pearce (GBR) 64 60 yesterday but was totally at sea today against the Q third seed, Haruko Kaji, a former top-300 WTA player, in a 36 36 loss.

In the main draw, 6th seed Ankita faces a qualifier TBD, and Rutuja runs into Naiktha Bains (GBR).

In doubles, Rutuja and Erika Sema (JPN) are top seeds, and Ankita and Mana Ayukawa (JPN) are the second seeds.

[VReddy]

In R2, match will be against Lucie Havlickova! I remember the highlights of her 60 60 win against Riya Bhatia as a 15 yr old. I expect Ankita to be too strong for Lucie but highlights of Lucie vs Riya in case anyone is interested:

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A video from YouTube usually appears here. Please contact an administrator.

[jayakris]

^^^ Argh. It just shows why Riya has not been able to move up. Just not accurate on her shots even when she actually has a good array of them. Too many loopy balls, and she hits the net often when she tries to lower the trajectory.

But it was beautiful tennis from Havlickova there. Just clean tennis with all the wrinkles. Her talent shows.

I don't think Ankita will find her to be that easy if they face each other in the R2. AR should win, but if she is error prone like she has lately been, Havlickova will beat her, and probably even in straight sets.

[sameerph]

At the W25 in Roehampton, GBR

Humera Beharmus, 12th seed in qulifying, beat a 15 year old junior player Erin Pearce (GBR) 64 60 yesterday but was totally at sea today against the Q third seed, Haruko Kaji, a former top-300 WTA player, in a 36 36

Haruko Kaji reached SF last week where she ran Ankita close for 2 sets before Ankita managed to bagel her in third set. So, no surprise that she was able to overcome Humera easily.

[jayakris]

At the Roehampton W25, GBR,

[R1] Rutuja Bhosle (IND,431) d. Naiktha Bains (GBR,433), 64 64... Somewhat an easier win than I expected, for Rutuja. She goes up against the top seed Pemra Ozgen (TUR,243) next.

Ankita plays her R1 only tomorrow, against qualifier Angelica Blake (GBR,872)

[sameerph]

This is a good win for Rutuja as Naiktha looked in real good form last week.

In Spain, Sowjanya started with a good win.

At W25 Vigo, Spain (Hard)

[R1] Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND,530) d. Ashley Lahey (USA,495) 63 36 64

Next,

[R2] Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND,530) vs. Anna Brogan (GBR,480)

Brogan upset 8th seed in first round.

[jayakris]

At the Roehampton W25,

[R1] (6) Ankita Bhambri (IND,358) l. (Q) Angelica Blake (GBR, ITF/872), 67(4) 63 26

Argh.