Tulpule top seed

NEW DELHI, MAY 2: Top seed Radhika Tulpule will enter the second round of the third leg of ITF Women's Circuit, which gets underway at th...

NEW DELHI, MAY 2: Top seed Radhika Tulpule will enter the second round of the third leg of ITF Women8217;s Circuit, which gets underway at the Delhi Law Tennis Association courts tomorrow, without hitting a ball.

The Pune youngster, who won the first leg of the event at Mumbai, has been given a bye in her first round. She will meet the winner of the Sumitra Rao-Vishnu Reetham Mahalingam match, in the second round. Tulpule is expected to meet Anna Nefedova of Russia, the only foreign entrant, in the third round.

In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Jayaram Sai Jayalakshmy of Tamil Nadu too gets to play her first match in the second round after being given a bye in the first.

In fact, most of the seeds enter the second round directly, including fourth seed Shruti Dhawan who won the second leg in Bangalore, defeating Rushmi Chakravarty, the third seed here.

Karnataka8217;s Archana Venkatraman, among the main challengers although unseeded this time, will open her campaign against Padma Preetham Mahalingamin the first round. Maharashtra8217;s Janaki Krishnamoorthy, a veteran on the circuit, will face Sricharanya Thyagrajan in her opening game.

Krishnamoorthy faces a tough second round, in case she gets past her first round, against another veteran, Arathi Venkatraman, the sixth seed. Arathi too has received a bye in the first round and is likely to play her opening game of this leg against Krishnamoorthy.

In doubles, the top seeded pair of Sai and Rushmi, have been given a bye in the first round. The second seed of Shruti and Goutham Sheethal too will get to play their first match only in the second round.

Singles Seedings

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1. Radhika Tulpule, 2. Sai Jayalakshmi, 3. Rushmi Chakravarty, 4. Shriti Dhawan, 5. Goutham Sheethal, 6. Arathi Venkatraman, 7. Tara Ranbargimath, 8. Harsimran Bedi.