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Ankita had to come back after the 3h marathon to complete her unfinished doubles match. Hope she is fine tomorrow for the QF.

And now she is playing the doubles semifinals.
Terrible scheduling by the organizers.

A very punishing schedule for Ankita as she was on the court for more than 7 hours playing three matches ... She won her singles match in 3 hours ... Then she played almost 2 hours and 25 mins. the doubles quarter-final against the 2nd seeds Chinese pair and scored hard fought comeback win ... Immediately she and Gasanova played the semi-final against the third seeds Lu and Hsieh and lost in the match tie-break in almost 2 hours ... I am not expecting much from her in the singles quarter-final against top-100 Chinese player.

At $60K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Jinan, China

[QF] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt (2) Chen Liang (CHN)/ Qiu Yu Ye (CHN) 67(10) 75 11-9

[SF] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) l (3) Shu-Ying Hsieh (TPE)/ Jing Jing Lu (CHN) 46 76(5) 5-10

Crazy and completely unfair scheduling, but Ankita is clearly both a doughty fighter and a very good doubles player.

Ankita fought valiantly against Yafan Wang. She was down a break twice in the first set and each time broke back Yafan immediately. On the 12th game, when she was up 6-5, she exerted a lot of pressure and had 3 break point opportunities which she couldn't capitalize. That was the turning point.

She played a poor tie break and lost the set 2-7. In the second set Yafang was serving first and it all went on serve until the tenth game, where Yafan stepped up the pedal and created 3 Match point opportunities. Ankita saved two of them but succumbed at the end to lose the set 4-6 and the match.

For most part of the game, she was matching Yafan.

[QF] Ankita RAINA (IND, 193 ) l. Yafan WANG (CHN, 93) : 6-7, 4-6

The scheduling killed Ankita's chances -- as is to be expected when she was playing Chinese players in China. Great resilience nonetheless.

When is Ankita playing next?

As per earlier reports, Ankita was to play in Guangzhou this week but looks like she skipped that. There was 1 more WTA international tournament in Korea too this week which she could have played.

Not sure if he is nursing any injury but otherwise I guess she would Tashkent WTA next week. She will have to play qualies as main draw cut off is 125.

Both Ankita and Karman are not in the Tashkent Q draw.

That is a bit surprising. If I recall Ankita had played in this Tashkent tournament for last 2-3 years. It looks like she was not in the original entry list at all. Perhaps, she has taken a training break or something. There are lots of ITF 25K tournaments ( and WTA Mumbai where she did well last year) coming up in India in November and December. So, probably Ankita will use that to try to maximise her ranking.

Ankita is finally back on the circuit and playing qualies at Tianjin.

At $750K WTA Tianjin open,China

[Q1] (4) Ankita Raina (IND,203) vs. (WC) Ying Zhang (CHN,868)

Usually this should be an easy win for Ankita but she is playing her first competitive match after one and half months. So, she might be a bit rusty.

Ankita gets thru first qualifying with a hard fought but straight sets win.

At $750K WTA Tianjin open,China

[Q1] (4) Ankita Raina (IND,203) d. (WC) Ying Zhang (CHN,868) 64 75

Next,

[Q2] (4) Ankita Raina (IND,203) vs. (7) Yuxuan Zhang (CHN,222)

Ankita had beaten Zhang at the same venue in their only meeting but that was 4 years back in 2014. So, Ankita will have to be sharp to pull off a win and qualify for main draw.

Ankita lost in second qualifying round.

[Q2] (4) Ankita Raina (IND,203) l. (7) Yuxuan Zhang (CHN,222) 75 06 36

Ankita mentioned that her break was due to viral infection. So, she may be still on the way to being given physically fully strong.

Ankita is playing in $100K in Shenzhen this week.

At $100K ITF Women, Shenzhen, China

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,197) vs. Fang Ying Xun (CHN,206)

Xun had beaten Ankita twice in last 1 year - in a third set tie break in a $60K in Luan in May and once in the same tournament last year. However, Karman and Rutuja have both beaten Xun this year. So, hope Ankita can reverse her losing record against Xun this week.

And this time Ankita does take her revenge over Xun.

At $100K ITF Women, Shenzhen, China

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,197) d. Fang Ying Xun (CHN,206) 76(7) 63

She is likely to run into top seed and top 50 player Saisai Zheng next.