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Congratulations to Rutuja for her second ITF title this week in Hua Hin, Thailand. It was a great run by her in a field where she was not seeeded.

These are her results this week-

[R1] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,743) d. (WC) Natcharee TEERACHODJIRANON (THA,NR) 60 60
[R2] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,743) d. (2) Bunyawi THAMCHAIWAT (THA,547) 64 63
[QF] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,743) d. Mi Zhuoma YOU (CHN,995) 62 61
[SF] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,743) bt Lulu Sun (SUI,1004) 61 67(3) 63
[F] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,743) d. Hua-Chen Lee (TPE,708) 64 26 75

With that title she will move up to around 630 in the WTA singles ranking and #5 among Indians. She has no points to defend till mid next year and can only go up.

Great week for Rutuja, who is clearly getting back to her best pre-college form. She had a reasonably good college career at Texas A&M, and will hopefully now make a bid to get to career-high rankings inside top-400.

Rutuja's interview by Vatsal : https://indiantennisdaily.com/2018/02/0 ... a-bhosale/. Brief insight into her move to Texas A&M instead of taking the Pro route when she was already close to top-500 as a 17-yr old.

Nice interview. How Rutuja and Kanika do in pro tennis will be a sort of test to see if a US college stint works for our player on womens side. There is clear evidence that it benefits on mens side but not much on womens side. If Rutuja and/our Kanika are able to crack top 250/ top 200 ( keeping the expectations realistic) then it would be a good positive indication.

After her best week on pro tour so far last week reaching SF at $25K in Uzbekistan, Rutuja is playing a $25K in Georgia this week.

At $25K ITF Women, Tbilisi , Georgia

[R1] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,531) vs. (WC) Zoziya KARDAVA (GEO,NR)

Kardava is a 16 year old who is ranked 163 in ITF juniors.

Comfortable win for Rutuja to start with.

At $25K ITF Women, Tbilisi , Georgia

[R1] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,531) d. (WC) Zoziya KARDAVA (GEO,NR) 64 61

Tough match next up against local third seed.

Next,

[R2] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,531) vs. (3) Ekaterine GORGODZE (GEO,316)

sameerph wrote: ↑Tue May 01, 2018 3:26 pm Next,

[R2] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,531) vs. (3) Ekaterine GORGODZE (GEO,316)

Upset time!

Nope. Quite tame loss for Rutuja this time.

At $25K ITF Women, Tbilisi , Georgia

[R2] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,531) l. (3) Ekaterine GORGODZE (GEO,316) 16 06

Still, I think when her this and last week's points are updated, Rutuja will move to a carrer high ranking of around 435 and move just ahead of Pranjala as India #3.

Gosh, that was a bad bad scoreline. I thought he might not be ready for an upset but didn't want/expect such a one-sided match.

Yes, the scoreline looks really bad and I predicted an upset!

Gorgodze who thrashed Rutuja went on to win the title in Georgia, winning all her matches in straight sets winning the final against 221st ranked top seed 64 64. So, Rutuja was perhaps unlucky to draw the best player of the week so early.

At $60,000 ITF Baotou, China

[R1] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,445) vs. Aleksandrina NAYDENOVA (BUL,455)

The Bulgarian hasn't won a single MD match this year. Great chance for Rutuja to score her first win at the $60K Challenger level.

Rutuja's match is on ITF livestream.

This one is on indoor clay courts. Rutuja took some time to adjust to the high bouncing surface where her opponent's top spin game seemed more effective and went down 0-4 quickly. But, she has fought back really well and it is now 5-5 in the first set.

But, she lost the next 2 games to lose the first set 5-7.

Second set was similar to first one. From 0-3 down Rutuja got back to 3-3 but lost the next 3 games.

At $60K ITF Women Baotou, China

[R1] Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,445) l. Aleksandrina NAYDENOVA (BUL,455) 57 36

She could not adjust well to the surface.

As expected, Rutuja entered top 400 for the first time to be ranked #400 this week. With that we have 3 players in top 400 of WTA rankings for the first time since 2008. Hope Rutuja continues her progress and goes towards top 300 soon.