Karman, Pranjala make exit
The two Indian players on show in early first round action made contrasting exits in the L&T Mumbai Open WTA $125K Series, organized by MSLTA and CCI at the CCI courts, here, on Wednesday.
While wild card entrant Karman Thandi lost an error-prone game to top seed Chinese Zheng Saisai, 2-6, 4-6, qualifier Pranjala Yadlapalli could not sustain her early dominance and went down to fifth seed Luksika Khumkhum of Thailand 6-3, 5-7, 1-6.
There was an upset in the first round, with fourth seed Olga Danilovic making her exit, losing to Danka Kovinic 6-4, 5-7, 0-6. In second round action, last year’s runner-up and second seed Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia had an easy 6-4, 6-2 win over Shabina Sharipova (UZB).
Earlier, Karman Thandi, after a positive start, went into self-destruct mode as a slew of errors saw her lose 10 games in a row and she was staring at defeat, 2-6 and 0-4 down. The youngster’s fightback, though a bit late, was still a treat to watch.
Karman held for 4-1 and then saved a match point while serving, for 5-2. Getting into a sweet rhythm, Karman broke the top seed and then held to raise visions of a grand fightback at 4-5.
However, the experienced Chinese held her nerve to serve out the match in one hour and 17 minutes. “I missed a couple of short balls and chances to finish the point in the first set. I was getting better in the second set but it was too late,” said Karman.