Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, March 3: Lucky loser Wongkamalasai Orawan of Thailand turned the tables on qualifier Shruti Dhawan of India while Arati Venkatraman was blanked by China8217;s Ding Ding leaving only two out of eight Indian contenders in the second round of the Central Bank ITF US 10,000 women8217;s tennis. But top seed Benjamas Sangaram Thai faced little resistance in downing Liu Zhi Rong China 6-2, 6-2 to ease into the second round.
Indian presence in the doubles also suffered a major erosion with only Arti Ponnappa and Rushmi Chakravarthy posting a 6-2, 6-4 verdict over Sheetal Gautam and Shruti Dhawan.
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.
