$15K ITF Womens Sri Lanka (Clay), October 2017

[jayakris]

Gosh, she keeps getting interrupted just when she is in a good position.... Would have been much nicer, had she won the set and then the match got postponed.

[vishalg]

Riya won't be playing next week so she can afford to play a long match. I do feel bad for her opponent who after finishing this match has to play doubles quarter finals and more, if she wins.

[bujilover]

Gosh, she keeps getting interrupted just when she is in a good position.... Would have been much nicer, had she won the set and then the match got postponed.

The unfinished first set was a break fest with both the players breaking each other 9 times. Riya's opponent was serving for the set at 5-3.

[sameerph]

Gosh, she keeps getting interrupted just when she is in a good position.... Would have been much nicer, had she won the set and then the match got postponed.

True, it seems the break did not go well for Riya and she was broken today immediately after resumption today. Thankfully, she played a strong tie break to take the first set 76(2).

[sameerph]

And after another couple of hours of rain break, the match resumed and Riya wrapped it up quickly.

[F] (1) Riya Bhatia (IND, 591) d. (2) Josephine Boualem (FRA, 607) 76(2) 61

Second ITF singles title for Riya after the one in Egypt in September 2016.

[PKBasu]

Congrats to Riya for winning the title, and beating the French second seed in the final with consummate ease.

[jayakris]

Extra congrats for handling all the disruptions and confusion well, and coming through! Go Riya!

[sameerph]

It seems like these set of tournaments are held in the middle of monsoon in Sri Lanka. Therefore, every day only a few hours of play is possible. To make it worse, the tournaments are scheduled to be held on clay but it seems except for first couple of rounds last week all other matches had to be played on hard courts which would be drying up faster.

This week as of end of Tuesday, they could only get the qualifying matches done.

These are the results for Indians -

Q1
Ramya NATARAJAN (IND) [1] BYE
Nithya Raj BABU RAJ (IND) 6-3 6-3 Xue ZHANG (CHN)
Rishika SUNKARA (IND) [2] BYE
Himani MOR (IND) 5-4 Retired Jiahuan HE (CHN)
Jennifer LUIKHAM (IND) 6-0 6-4 Riddhi RAMESH SHARMA (IND)
Saumya VIG (IND) 6-3 6-3 Gabriela Aura ZARNOVEANU (ROU)

Q2
Ramya NATARAJAN (IND) [1] 6-0 6-2 Nithya Raj BABU RAJ (IND)
Rishika SUNKARA (IND) [2] 6-2 6-1 Himani MOR (IND)
Jennifer LUIKHAM (IND) 6-3 6-1 Minami AKIYAMA (JPN)
Akiko OKUDA (USA) [8] 3-6 6-2 6-0 Saumya VIG (IND)

3 Indians qualified for the main draw to make it overall 9 Indians in the main draw.

These are the main draw matches for our players -

[R1] (4) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,619) vs. (Q) Csilla ARGYELAN (HUN,1158)
[R1] (8) Natasha PALHA (IND,744) vs. Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,859)
[R1] (Q) Ramya NATARAJAN (IND,1070) vs. (6) Tamara CUROVIC (SRB,644)
[R1] Zeel DESAI (IND,822) vs. (WC) Sasha ALEXANDER (AUS,NR)
[R1] Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,954) vs. (3) Josephine BOUALEM (FRA,607)
[R1] (Q) Jennifer LUIKHAM (IND,NR) vs. (Q) Rishika SUNKARA (IND,1049)
[R1] (2) Pranjala YADLAPALLI (IND,511) vs. Angelique SVINOS (AUS,890)

[bujilover]

Great chance for Jennifer to earn another ranking point. Pranjala, Zeel, Rutuja (whose first-round opponent is still to be decided), Nidhi should win

[sameerph]

Another day of play washed out today here. Still not a single point of main draw played after Wednesday.

They have now kept 2 rounds tomorrow with match tie-break instead of third set. Let's see if the rain relents though.

[bujilover]

Did the organizers not anticipate this rainy weather for the 3 weeks? The forecast predicts showers throughout the weekend and even next week

[sameerph]

Of course, organisers would have known it since this is supposed to be a monsoon month in Sri Lanka. Still, they do not seem to have any back up indoor courts nor they are having lights to play at the night.

Today, seemed a better day weatherwise but still they could not complete the first round and 3 of the matches were postponed tomorrow.

These are the first round results of the day for Indians -

[R1] (4) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,619) d. (Q) Csilla ARGYELAN (HUN,1158) 50 retd.
[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,859) d. (8) Natasha PALHA (IND,744) 62 63
[R1] (Q) Ramya NATARAJAN (IND,1070) l. (6) Tamara CUROVIC (SRB,644) 24 retd.
[R1] Zeel DESAI (IND,822) d. (WC) Sasha ALEXANDER (AUS,NR) 61 63
[R1] Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,954) d. (3) Josephine BOUALEM (FRA,607) 63 63

Pranjala's and Rishika-Jeniffer first round matches were postponed tomorrow. Also all second round singles matches scheduled for tomorrow.

Next,

[R2] (4) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,619) vs. Barbora MIKLOVA (CZE,925)
[R2] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,859) vs. YeXin MA (CHN,1126)
[R2] Zeel DESAI (IND,822) vs. Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,954)

[bujilover]

Zeel vs Pranjala is a thriller. I hope Nidhi continues to win in her birthday week (She turned 23 this Monday).

[bujilover]

Also great upset from Prerna defeating last week's finalist. We will have 6 Indians in round 2 if Pranjala wins her first round match.

[Sin Hombre]

Zeel vs Pranjala is a thriller. I hope Nidhi continues to win in her birthday week (She turned 23 this Monday).

Prerna, not Pranjala.