The Sports-India Community

After almost a 2-month break from Pro circuit (because of the Asian Indoor games), Ankita is back again playing the $60K ITF in Suzhou.

At $60,000 Suzhou, CHINA (Hard- Outdoor)

[R32] Ankita RAINA (271) vs Hanyu GUO (333)

Doubles - Ankita is seeded 4th partnering Dalila Jakupovic.

Ankita defeated Guo in 3 sets in March this year at the $60,000 Quanzhou ITF. Not an easy match.

Tame loss for Ankita in first round.

At $60K ITF Women, Suzhou, CHINA (Hard- Outdoor)

[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND,279) l. Hanyu GUO (CHN,328) 36 06

I thought she took too long break before this. Indoor Asian games were for about 2 weeks but she had taken 2 months break. Probably a training break but she may be a bit rusty due to that.

At $60K ITF Women, Liuzhou , CHINA

[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND,279) vs. Olesya PERVUSHINA (RUS,549)

17 year old Russian was ranked # 1 in ITF juniors last year and reached SF in both French open and Wimbledon juniors. So, another tough one for Ankita.

Ankita lost the match in straight sets.

At $60K ITF Women, Liuzhou , CHINA

[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND,279) l. Olesya PERVUSHINA (RUS,549) 46 16

It looks like she lost all the momentum after taking a longish break. Earlier in the year, she had couple of very runs to a final and semi final finish at 60K level. But, cannot sustain it thru the year. That is probably the reason she cannot still move up to a higher than 250-300 ranking level.

Ankita and Dalila started with a win in the match tie-break against Suns ... Next, they r facing local wildcard pair.

At $60K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Liuzhou, China

[R1] (4) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt Xu Liu Sun (CHN)/ Ziyue Sun (CHN) 62 67(5) 10-3

[QF] (4) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Ankita Raina (IND) vs (WC) Zhanlan Wei (CHN)/ Yuxuan Zhang (CHN)

Ankita and Dalila r in the semis with the straight sets win over local wildcard pair ... In the semis, they lost in the straight sets against top-seed Han-Ninomiya.

At $60K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Liuzhou, China

[QF] (4) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt (WC) Zhanlan Wei (CHN)/ Yuxuan Zhang (CHN) 60 76(6)

[SF] (4) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Ankita Raina (IND) l (1) Xinyun Han (CHN)/ Makoto Ninomiya (JPN) 67(2) 36

In the singles, Ankita is facing similar ranked Chinese girl, Fang Ying Xun.

In the doubles, Ankita scored a comeback win over Suns with her Russian partner Gasanova ... Next, they r facing 2nd seed Cako-Stojanovic.

At $100K ITF Women's Tournament 2017, Shenzhen, China

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,283) vs Fang Ying Xun (CHN,293)

Doubles
[R1] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt Xu Liu Sun (CHN)/ Ziyue Sun (CHN) 36 62 10-6

[QF] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) vs (2) Jacqueline Cako (USA)/ Nina Stojanovic (SRB)

At $100K ITF Women's Tournament 2017, Shenzhen, China

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,283) vs Fang Ying Xun (CHN,293), 36 46

It was a close match early on but Ankita had a bad streak late in the first set and early second set.. She recovered late in the second, and broke back at 36 35, only to have trouble in the next game as a DF brought up 15-40 match pt. She then saved 4 match points and fell at the fifth MP. Argh. Wish she were playing in Pune.

[QF] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) l (2) Jacqueline Cako (USA)/ Nina Stojanovic (SRB) 2-6 5-7

A winnable match for Ankita against Japanese qualifier ... In the doubles, she is 3rd seed with Sema.

At $60K+H ITF Women's Tournament 2017, Toyota, Japan

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,283) vs (Q) Megumi Nishimoto (JPN,718)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Erika Sema (JPN) vs Rika Fujiwara (JPN)/ Ayano Shimizu (JPN)

Ankita's awful form continues ... She lost in the doubles with Sema in the match tie-break ... Hopefully, she will be giving better results in the singles.

At $60K+H ITF Women's Tournament 2017, Toyota, Japan

[R1] (3) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Erika Sema (JPN) l Rika Fujiwara (JPN)/ Ayano Shimizu (JPN) 46 76(5) 4-10

But, she started with a good comeback in singles first round.

At $60K+H ITF Women's Tournament 2017, Toyota, Japan

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,283) d. (Q) Megumi Nishimoto (JPN,718) 26 61 61

So, she still remain in contention to retain her India #1 position. Will have to create an upset in next match though to do that.

Next,

[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,283) vs. (5) Miharu IMANISHI (JPN,223)

Ankita is India number #1. Ankita will bagel Karman. She doesn't collect cheap points.

Ankita lost in straight sets.

At $60K+H ITF Women's Tournament 2017, Toyota, Japan

[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,283) l. (5) Miharu IMANISHI (JPN,223) 36 26

With that loss, it is now certain that Ankita will give up her India #1 position and Karman will be new India #1 on Monday.

To keep this thread updated, Ankita lost her India #1 for the first time since May 2013, i.e about 4 and half years. Karman Kaur Thandi is new India # 1 at 284 and Ankita # 2 at 293. They are quite close though and Ankita can regain that #1 position as early as this week if she wins her match tomorrow in Mumbai WTA as Karman lost in first round today.

Of course, even if she does not do that race between her and Karman will continue for next few weeks at least with couple of more 25K's coming up in India towards the end of the year.