Easy wins for Nirupama

New Delhi, April 18: If players from Slovenia dominated on Day One yesterday, then today belonged to India, as six Indian women moved into...

New Delhi, April 18: If players from Slovenia dominated on Day One yesterday, then today belonged to India, as six Indian women moved into the second round of the 10,000 ITF Women8217;s circuit at the DTA complex.

Though Sai Jayalaskhmy and Sonal Phadke, last week8217;s winner and runner-up respectively in Mumbai, beat compatriots, and Nandini Perumal made it when opponent Misae Sakai retired ill, they all looked good on court. This, despite an absolutely still day on which on-court temperatures hovered around the mid-40 degree celsius mark.

Top seed Nirupama Vaidyanathan was in great form and obviously wanted to get off court as soon as possible. Nirupama swept aside 16-year-old Austrian Nina Egger 6-1, 6-2 in just under an hour. Egger8217;s inexperience showed as she made a great many unforced errors. The Austrian missed easy volleys and allowed Nirupama to easily move her around the court by bad court coverage, especially in the first set.

In the second set, Egger managed to achieve her one break of the match in the fifth game. But Nirupama, with three breaks in games two, four and eight, quickly wrapped up the match.

Said Nirupama later: quot;In the end, the heat was affecting me a little bit and I was getting a little cranky.quot;

Today8217;s big loss in the Indian context was that of sixth seed Rushmi Chakravarthi, who lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. The Chennai-based girl went down to Masa Vesenjak, who8217;s twin Urska had taken out Arthi Venkataraman yesterday. Masa, the less experienced of the Slovenian siblings, began somewhat tentatively to lose the first set. However she came back very strongly to dominate the match.

Rushmi, as has been her wont in the past couple of years, seems to fall apart in big match situations. It doesn8217;t really make sense that she doesn8217;t perform, as of all the Indian girls on the domestic circuit, Rushmi possibly has the best all-round game. The long-legged, rather quiet girl is certainly not short on experience; having played all over Europe and south-east Asia. But the experience obviously hasn8217;t taught her much.

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Rushmi is a former national champion too and it8217;s high time she did something about her negative body language and tendency to choke in any situation, whether she is up or down.

In the doubles though, she and Radhika Tulpule, did well to take out the second seeded Indo-Japanese combination of Manisha Malhotra and Satomi Kinjo 6-1, 6-4. Manisha, who seemed troubled by a thigh strain in her earlier singles win over Swiss Lucia Tallo 6-3, 6-2, looked alright. But the Indian duo played better.

SINGLES RESULTS: Nirupama Vaidyanathan IND bt Nina Egger AUT 6-1, 6-2; Manisha Malhotra IND bt Lucia Tallo SUI 6-3, 6-2; Sai Jayalakshmy IND bt Harsimran Kaur IND 6-1, 6-1; Masa Vesenjak SLO bt Rushmi Chakravarthi IND 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Archana Venkataraman IND bt Karolina Sadaj POL 6-3, 6-1; Nandini Perumal IND bt Misae Sakai JPN 1-0, retd.; Jennifer Schmidt AUT bt Marion Walter GER 6-2, 5-7, 6-1; Sonal Phadke IND bt Nona Wagh IND 6-4, 6-0

DOUBLES RESULTS: Sai Jayalakshmy/Nirupama Vaidyanathan IND bt Sonal Phadke/Nona Wagh IND 6-2, 6-1; Miako Ataka JPN/ Geeta Manohar IND bt Lorena Aparicio ESP/Yuka Hatano JPN 6-4, 6-1; Urska and Masa Vesenak SLO bt Svetla Bozicnik/ Maja Mlakar SLO 6-1, 6-2; Nina Egger AUT/Marion Walter GER bt Nikita Bharadwaj/Megha Vakharia IND 6-2, 6-2; Shalini Thakur/Harsimran Kaur IND bt Vishika Chhetri/Nandini Perumal IND 6-2, 6-2; Karolina Sadaj POL/Lucia Tallo SUI bt SK Tara/ Karishma Patel IND 4-6, 7-5, 6-4; Archana and Arthi Venkataraman IND bt Jennifer Schmidt AUT/Ana Sismonddini ESP 6-0, 6-4; Rushmi Chakravarthi/Radhika Tulpule JPN bt Satomi Kinjo JPN/Manisha Malhotra 6-1, 6-4.