Sahaja Yamalapalli enters second round

Sahaja Yamalapalli overcame a slow start to beat Vaidehi Chaudhari 36, 61, 61 in the first round of Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on the clay courts of the MSLTA Academy in Nagpur on Wednesday.

In the prequarterfinals, Sahaja will play wild card entrant Sonal Patil.

Sahaja made the doubles quarterfinal also, in partnership with Miriana Tona of Italy.

National champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty was beaten in three sets by qualifier Anastasia Zolotareva, while Vaishnavi Adkar fell to fellow qualifier Ikumi Yamazaki in three sets.

The champion of the last tournament in Gurugram, third seed Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania was beaten 75, 62 by Mei Yamaguchi of Japan.

The fourth seed Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia was also beaten by another Japanese, Ayumi Koshishi, 64, 76(6).

The results:

Singles: First round: Irina Bara (Rou) bt Akanksha Nitture 6-1, 6-3; Yeonwoo Ku bt Yasmine Mansouri 7-5, 3-6, 6-0; Mei Yamaguchi bt Justina Mikulskyte 7-5, 6-2.

Ikumi Yamazaki bt Vaishnavi Adkar 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Sahaja Yamalapalli bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 3-6, 6-1, 6-1;.

Dayeon Back bt Anjali Rathi 6-1, 6-1; Ayumi Koshishi bt Diana Marcinkevica 6-4, 7-6(6). Anastasia Zolotareva bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. Doubles: Prequarterfinals: Irina & Dalila Jakupovic bt Humera Baharmus & Pooja Ingale 6-1, 6-2.

Thasaporn Naklo & Akiko Omae bt Zeel Desai & Snehal Mane 6-1, 7-6(5); Miriana Tona & Sahaja bt Sharmada Balu & Rinon Okuwaki 7-5, 4-6, [10-8].

Fanny Ostlund & Ekaterina Yashina bt Ayumi Koshishi & Michika Ozeki 7-5, 7-6(3).