Shruti, Arati fall

The talented Shruti Dhawan, who had beaten Wongkamalasai in three sets in the final round of the qualifiers had the best first round draw among the Indian players and was expected to pull it off. But the Thai woman, ranked 868 in the WTA computer, proved a different proposition by controlling the match well to win 6-3, 6-4.

Arati Venkatraman could do little against her Chinese rival going down 0-6, 0-6 in aone-sided affair. In the other first round match, Li Ting (China) fought hard to quell the challenge of Uchida Motoe (Japan) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

The other Indian women pairs to lose in the first round were Reetu Sethi-Joy Rodrigues, Sai Jayalakshmi-Uzma Khan, Trishna Williams-Shalini Thakur and sisters Archana and Arati Venkataraman.

Results

Singles (first round): Benjamas Sangaram (Thai) bt Liu zhi Rong (Chn) 6-2, 6-2; Li Ting (Chn) bt Uchida Motoe (Jpn) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; Ding Ding (Chn) bt Arati Venkatraman (Ind) 6-0, 6-0; Orawan Wongkamalasai (Thai) bt Shruti Dhawan (Ind) 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles (first round): Nami Urabe-Yoriko Yamagishi (1-Jap) bt Irina Nossenko (Ukr)-Julia Kryoukova (Rus) 6-1, 6-2; Arti Ponnappa-Rushmi Chakravarthy (Ind) bt Sheetal Gautam-Shruti Dhawan (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Li Ting-Ding Ding (4-Chn) bt Nicole Remis-Nicole Melch (Aut) 6-4, 6-1; Julia Adlbrecht-Sandra Mantler (Aut) bt Reetu Sethi-Joy Rodrigues (Ind) 6-3, 6-3; Qui Yang (Chn)-Motoe Uchida (Jpn) bt SaiJayalakshmi-Uzma Khan (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Riei Otakeyama-Shiha Hisamasu (3-Jpn) bt Trishna Williams-Shalini Thakur (Ind) 6-2, 6-0; Ayami Takase (Jpn)-Orawan Wongkamalasai (Thai) bt Arti-Archana Venkatraman (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Benjamas Sangaram (Tha)-Abigail Tordoff (2-GB) bt Kelly Liggan (Ire)-Liu Zhi Rong (Chn) 7-5, 6-0.