On a rewarding day for wild cards, Shruti Dhawan and Isha Lakhani of India registered impressive wins over fancied opponents to advance to the second round, in the US$10,000 ITF Women's Tennis Tournament, sponsored by Rajesh Kumar Wadhawan Charitable Trust, at the Practennis School of Tennis in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Practennis girl Lakhani and Delhi's Dhawan, both wild cards, won in contrasting fashion as Dhawan shocked No. 5 seed Julia Vorobieva of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (0) in a gruelling three-setter, while Lakhani crushed unseeded Cassandra Barr of Australia 6-3, 6-3.
Another Practennis trainee Krushmi Chheda was the third wild card to advance after her opponent Julia Dziedzic of Australia retired due to medical reasons when the Indian led 4-1 in the first set.
While top seed Chin-Wei Chan of Chinese Taipei prevailed over wild card Megha Vakharia of India 6-4, 6-2, No. 2 Montinee Tangphong of Thailand survived a scare against the formidable Sai-Jayalakshmi Jayaram of India before winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a contest that lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Punam Reddy took much longer as she upset fancied Archana Venkataraman 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (6) in a three-hour long first round tie.
Results: Singles (1st round): Chi-Wei Chan (Tpe) bt Megha Vakharia (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Natsumi Hamamura (Jpn) bt Nudnida Luangnam (Thai) 7-5, 7-5; Shruti Dhawan (Ind) bt Julia Vorobieva 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (0); Isha Lakhani (Ind) bt Cassandra Barr (Aus) 6-3, 6-3; Montinee Tangphong (Thai) bt Sai Jayalakshmy-Jayaram (Ind) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Thassha Vityaviroj (Thai) bt Karishma Patel (Ind) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Punam Reddy (Ind) bt Archana Venkataraman (Ind) 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (6); Krushmi Chheda (Ind) bt Julia Dziedzic (Aus) 4-1, retd.; Kavita Krishnamurthy (Can) bt Adriana Szili (Aus) 4-0 (conceded); Mihaela Buzarnescu (Rom) bt Tara Iyer (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Pichittra Thongdach (Thai) bt Geeta Manohar (Ind) 1-6, 7-5, 6-0; Petra Cetkovska (Czech) bt Ankita Bhambri (Ind) 4-1 (conceded); Wilawan Choptang (Thai) bt Sheetal Goutham (Ind) 6-2, 6-0.
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