Bengaluru, March 7 () Indian pair of Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare registered an impressive come-from-behind win to enter the doubles quarterfinals of the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open at the KSLTA Stadium here on Tuesday.
The No. 2 seeded duo defeated the wildcard Indo-German pair of Sharmada Balu and Sarah Rebecca Sekulic 5-7, 6-3, 10-6 in a thrilling Round-of-16 match that lasted for close to two hours.
The third-seeded Indo-Swedish pair of Rutuja Bhosale and Jacqueline Awad also advanced to the Last-8 stage after defeating Ji Hee Choi (South Korea) and Lee Ya-Hsuan (Taipei) 6-4, 6-2.
The all-Indian pair of Pragathi Narayan and Prathiba Narayan, on the other hand, exited in the Round-of-16 following a 4-6, 2-6 defeat to Anastasia Kovaleva and Hanna Vinahradava.
A similar fate was in store for another all-Indian pair of Vaidehi Chaudhari and Shrivalli Rashmikaa who gave a tough fight to the fancied duo of Slovenia’s Dalilia Jakupovic, a former World No. 38, and Amandine Hesse of France before going down 6-7(5), 7-5, 5-10.
Meanwhile, in the singles opening round, Japanese Ikumi Yamazaki stunned the third-seeded Sakura Hosogi 5-7, 3-6. Bengaluru girl Sharmada, a wild card entrant, however, lost to No. 8 seed Eden Silva of Britain 2-6, 4-6.
bsk
