Indore, May 9: Aparna Singh of Madhya Pradesh defeated Rati Kumar of Maharashtra by 7-6 2-6 6-2 to advance into the pre-quarterfinals of the Bridgestone ITF women's circuit tennis tournament here on Monday.In the opening tie, Rati Kumar took the initial lead of 4-2, but later on Aparna gave a tough fight and levelled the score at 6-6. In the tie-breaker, Aparna was ahead with 5-1 but Rati again levelled the score 5-5.However, the calm and cool Aparna played intelligently and ultimately won the first set by 7-5 in 48 minutes.In the second set, Rati threw up the challenge from the beginning by taking a lead of 3-0. She kept the pressure on Aparna and won the second set by 6-2 in 29 minutes. In the third set, though both the players were visibly tired, Aparna fought back brilliantly and won the set 6-2.In another interesting match, Liza Periera defeated T Yamin 3-6 6-0 6-2 in 83 minutes. Despite losing the first set by 3-6, Liza made a comeback by winning second and third 6-0 6-2.In other matches, Karisma Patel beat Kalpita Raje 6-0 6-3, Deepa Chakravarty beat Nishtha Yadav 6-0 6-0, Sricharnya Thyagarajan defeated Mansi Majeji 6-2, 6-2 and Mathura Devi got a walk over against Tara Kanbargimath.Earlier in the day, senior vice president of Bridgestone, SK Chatterjee inaugurated the $5,000 prize money tournament, organised jointly by Madhya Pradesh Tennis Association (MPTA) and Yeshwant Club.The co-ordinator of the tournament, Anil Mahajan informed reporters that the single's winner would get $650, runner-up $450, semi-finalists $250 and quarterfinalists $175.Similarly, the double's winner will be given $325, runners-up $175, semi-finalists $100 and quarter-finalist $50 each, he added.The equation of circuit points in the tournament is: Singles winner (16), runner-up (12), semifinal (8), quarterfinal (6), and pre-quarterfinal (3).
