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Yes, she will be around 525 in the next rankings update, still at India # 4 behind Pranjala who has moved up to India #3 this week with a ranking of 511.

Strangely, Riya is not playing in Srilanka this week but returns next week for third week of futures. Pranjala is playing for next 2 weeks. So, there will be healthy competition between these 2 for India #3 position this month.

After 3 first round losses in Turkey, Riya starts with a very good upset win this time.

At $15K ITF Women, Antalya, Turkey (Clay)

[R1] Riya BHATIA (IND,609) d. (4) Dea HERDZELAS (BIH,387) 75 64

Her second round opponent still to be determined as other matches are interrupted by rain.

Riya could not capitalise on her first round upset and lost a close one in the second round.

At $15K ITF Women, Antalya, Turkey (Clay)

[R2] Riya BHATIA (IND,609) l. Luna MEERS (BEL,926) 63 46 67(6)

Riya is the only one playing in $25K in Singapore next week and she qualified into main draw.

At $25K ITF Women, Singapore

[Q1] Riya BHATIA (IND) [3] BYE
[Q2] Riya BHATIA (IND) [3] 6-0 6-2 Evelina KONTAREVA (RUS)

Next,

[R1] (Q) Riya BHATIA (IND,623) vs. Pei-Chi LEE (TPE,460)

Riya lost in first round tamely.

At $25K ITF Women, Singapore

[R1] (Q) Riya BHATIA (IND,623) l. Pei-Chi LEE (TPE,460) 26 36

This week Riya is playing in one off 25K in Uzbekistan and won her first round match.

At $25K ITF Women, Fergana, Uzbekistan

[R1] Riya BHATIA (IND,488) d. Ekaterina VISHNEVSKAYA (RUS,682) 63 63

Up against the fifth seed next,

[R2] Riya BHATIA (IND,488) vs. (5) Ekaterina YASHINA (RUS,379)

Riya comes up with a very good upset win over the fifth seed.

At $25K ITF Women, Fergana, Uzbekistan

[R2] Riya BHATIA (IND,488) d. (5) Ekaterina YASHINA (RUS,379) 76(3) 63

Next,

[QF] Riya BHATIA (IND,488) vs. Valeriya YUSHCHENKO (RUS,658)

Great! Now, make the upset count for points by winning the next round, Riya!

Well, I guess I had a premonition on the easier-on-paper quarterfinal.... She could not do much and got nothing much for that upset earlier.

[QF] Riya BHATIA (IND,488) l. Valeriya YUSHCHENKO (RUS,658), 26 26

Riya won the doubles title at $25K in Taiwan.

At $25K ITF Women, Taipei

[R1] Riya BHATIA (IND) / Ramu UEDA (JPN) 6-3 7-6(5) Ya-Hsin LEE (TPE) / Ya Yun PAI (TPE)
[QF] Riya BHATIA (IND) / Ramu UEDA (JPN) 6-2 6-7(5) [14-12] Kwan Yau NG (HKG) / Valeria SAVINYKH (RUS) [2]
[SF] Riya BHATIA (IND) / Ramu UEDA (JPN) 6-4 Retired Nudnida LUANGNAM (THA) / Mai MINOKOSHI (JPN) [4]

[F] Riya BHATIA (IND) / Ramu UEDA (JPN) 7-5 6-2 I-Hsuan CHO (TPE) / Yi Tsen CHO (TPE)

First 25K level title for Riya although it comes in doubles.

In singles, Riya and Zeel Desai played singles here but lost in first round in both.

Congrats to Riya. That was a tough QF win over the second seeds! Then they got a break against the 4th seeds too. Not bad at all.

Congratulations to Riya for winning her first 25K title and her third title overall.

These are her results this week-

[R1] (6) Riya BHATIA (IND,516) d. Carla TOULY (FRA,NR) 61 40 retd.
[R2] (6) Riya BHATIA (IND,516) d. Isabella KRUGER (RSA,NR) 75 64
[QF] (6) Riya BHATIA (IND,516) d. (1) Seone MENDEZ (AUS,371) 46 60 60
[SF] (6) Riya BHATIA (IND,516) d. (5) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,480) 64 67(5) 75
[F] (6) Riya BHATIA (IND,516) d. (4) Nastja KOLAR (SLO,434) 75 16 63

With this title win and 50 points with it, Riya will move up inside top 400 for the first time and to a new career high of around 380.

She has only 7 more points to defend this year. With as many as 5 25K tournaments coming up in India in November-December, hope Riya can make it at least inside top 300 by end of the year.

Fantastic work by Riya, to win the final set and the match. I am not surprised though, that she won. Her double fault count was below the 13 I had asked for ... She kept it down to 11. But she had such a bad start with 9 (NINE!!) in the first set. How the hell does anybody win a set 7-5 after serving 9 DFs in the service games? 9 of her 18 second serves were faults in that set. Anyway, she cut it down to 2 DFs in the second set, but lost the set badly too. Then she had no DFs when it counted in the third set. But she only had 6 and 4 second serves each in the final two sets, so she must have adjusted her first serve and decided to get the ball in play. Anyway, I see interesting things in her serve stats. Whatever she did, it worked out in the end. Very nice to see her move inside top-400.

But she really does need to work on her serve and make it steadier. For a tall player, she needs to be able to do better.

Yes, a terrific title win by Riya and as Sameer mentioned, she is a good position to improve her ranking considering the ITF Indian leg.

Riya is playing qualies at big WTA 500 at Abu Dhabi.

At Abu Dhabi WTA womens tennis open (WTA 500)

[Q1] Riya Bhatia (IND,353) vs. (15) Irina Fetecau (ROU,309)

Not a bad match up in qualies of a big WTA tournament.