Easy wins for Nirupama

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. Egger’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: "In the end, the heat was affecting me a little bit and I was getting a little cranky."

Today’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, who’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 doesn’t really make sense that she doesn’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 hasn’t taught her much.

Rushmi is a former national champion too and it’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.