Women's $10K Ahmedabad, May 9-15

[Sandeep]

HA HA HA it is like some Indian national event. Except for one poor girl all are Indians in the main draw. What must she be thinking. Is there any other 10K event in world where the host country is so dominating?

[jayakris]

It routinely happens in events in China .. Jay

[jaydeep]

Nice opportunity to Indian gals to get importnat ranking points ... Especially Bhambri sis, Megha and Shruti.

Jaydeep.

[jayakris]

Yesterday's news --

Ankita Bhambri given top billing in ITF Futures meet

PTI, Ahmedabad, May 6 : Ankita Bhambri of India, ranked 512, has been given top billing in the USD 10,000 Gujarat NRE Coke Women's ITF Futures tennis tournament to be played at Sports Club of Gujarat here from May 9 to 14.

Sai Jayalakshmi Jayaram and Ankita's sister, Sanaa, both from India, will be the second and third seeds while Chinese player Sheng-Nan Sun is the fourth seed in the tournament, Chitan Parikh, the president of Ahmedabad City Tennis Federation (ACTF) told reporters here today.

The tournament, featuring both singles and doubles play, will be held under the aegis of Gujarat State Tennis Association (GSTA) and All India Tennis Association (AITA), he said adding, the singles winner will take home USD 1,600 while the runners-up will be richer by USD 1,000.

Similarly, the doubles winner will get USD 650 and the runners-up USD 350.

While 18 players in the 32-player main draw have been given direct entry, four players -- Karishma Patel, Eesha Sanghvi, Anahita Jagtiani and Pooja Koomireddi -- are given wild card.

The remaining 10 players will be selected after the qualifying rounds to be played on May 7-8, he said. PTI

Jay

[jayakris]

Today's News -

Deepanwita advances to final qual round

PTI, Ahmedabad, May 7 : Local girl Deepanwita Chakrabarty advanced to the final qualifying round of the USD 10,000 ITF Women's Circuit 2005 being played at the Ahmedabad City Tennis Foundation (ACTF) here today.

Deepanwita defeated compatriot Niroshita Madanlal in straight sets 6-2 6-2 in the first qualifying round.

Others who made it to tomorrow's final qualifying round included German Sarah Schulze, who defeated Ruchita Shetty 6-1 6-0, Karolina Nowak of Germany, beating Deepa Engade 6-0 6-1, and Ksenia Palikina of Kyrgystan, who beat Prerna Mythri Appineni 6-2 6-2.

The longest match of the day, which lasted for nearly three hours, was played between Neena Sharma and Arthi Venkartaraman. Arthi prevailed in three sets 6-2 3-6 6-2.

Of the nine matches held today, Ragini Vimal from Kolkata made short work of Delhi girl Samia Jalali 6-2 6-1, while Pallavi Sharma defeated Adithi J B 6-2 6-4. Shashirekha J B got the better of Summer Bhullar 6-2 6-2 while Neha Rana trounced Farah Mahmood 6-1 6-2.

The winners in the final qualifying round will make it to the main draw. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was expected to preside over the draw ceremony tomorrow. PTI

Jay

[jayakris]

Results from The Hindu -

Vera Leontieva (Rus) bt Pooja Kommireddi 6-4, 6-0
Sheng-Nan Sun (Chn) bt Deepanwita Chakrabarty 6-3,6-1
Grace Hannah bt Esha Sanghvi 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3
Karolina Nowak (Ger) bt Sarah Schulze (Ger) 6-2, 6-2
Parul Goswami bt Megha Vakharia 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Punam Reddy bt Preethi Shravan 6-2, 6-1
Isha Lakhani bt Sonal Phadke 6-4, 6-4
Sheethal Goutham bt Oormila Ram 6-1, 6-3.

Ankita Bhambri/ Sai Jayalakshmy bt Karolina NOwak/ Sarah Schulze (Ger) 6-0, 6-2
Geeta Manohar/ Liza Pereira bt Mariana Muci (Ven) and Sagarika Phadke 6-2, 6-4
Krushmi Chheda/ Preeti Rao bt Archana Venkataraman/ Arthi Venkataraman 6-2, 6-4
Sanaa Bhambri/ Shruti Dhawan bt Sandri Gangothri/ Ragini Vimal 6-1, 6-0

Jay

[Sandeep]

Very bad for Megha. Otherwise all the results are on expected lines.

[jaydeep]

Yes surprising loss of Megha ... Wished much better performance from this ... Sheng-Nan Sun looks dangerous in this field.

Jaydeep.

[jayakris]

Here are the full draws, including the Tuesday results.

(1) Sai Jayaram d. Iige Alpay (GER), 63 61
Vera Leontieva (RUS) d. (WC) Pooja Kommireddi (IND) 64 60
Mariana Muci (VEN) d. Geeta Manohar (IND) 64 60
(5) Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN) d. (Q) Deepanwita Chakrabarty (IND) 63 61
(3) Shruti Dhawan (IND) d. Liza Pereira (IND) 46 76(4) 60
(Q) Grace Hannah (IND) d. (WC) Esha Sanghvi (IND) 36 76(5) 63
(Q) Karolina Nowak (GER) d. (Q) Sarah Schulze (GER) 62 62
(Q) Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) d. (7) Archana venkatraman (IND) 64 64
Parul Goswami (IND) d. (8) Megha Vakharia (IND) 57 64 63
(Q) Sevvy Gallios (AUS) d. Preeti Rao (IND) 63 61
Karishma Patel (IND) d. Krushmi Chheda (IND) 63 61
(4) Sanaa Bhambri (IND) d. (WC) Anahita Jagtiani (IND) 61 61
(6) Punam Reddy (IND) d. (Q) Preethi Shravan (IND) 62 61
Isha Lakhani (IND) d. Sonal Phadke (IND) 64 64
Sheethal Goutham (IND) d. (WC) Oormila Ram (IND) 61 63
(2) Ankita Bhambri (IND) d. (Q) Ragini Vimal (IND) 64 64

(1) A.Bhambri/ S.Jayalakshmy d. (Q) K.Nowak/ S.Schulze 60 62
P.Goswami/ S-N.Sun d. (WC) P.Kommireddy/ O.Ram, 60 61
(4) G.Manohar/ L.Pereira d. M.Muci/ Sagarika Phadke 62 64
I.Lakhani M.Vakharia d. K.Patel/ P.Reddy 62 63
K.Chheda/ P.Rao d. Archana.V./ Arthi.V. 62 64
(3) S.Goutham/ S.Phadke d. (WC) A.Jagtiani/ E.Sanghvi 60 64
(Q) Vera Leontieva/ S.Palkina d. (WC) D.Chakravarthi/ Ruchita Shetty 60 60
(2) S.Bhambri/ S.Dhawan d. Sandri Gangothri/ R.Vimal 61 60

Jay

[PKBasu]

It's nice to see we can fill up almost a full international tournament at this level with our own players -- even when our top 3 (Sania, Shikha, Rushmi) aren't playing! Megha seems to be struggling since her injury. I'll be interested to see if Isha can pull out of her recent slump too...

[jayakris]

I am also glad that there is a nice group of decent foreign players who qualified in, etc. Though it looked like a domestic event from the entry list, there are 6 foreigners in the final-16, which isn't bad. It is always good to play some players you have not seen a whole lot.

Jay