Tennis meet: Four Indian girls ousted in 1st qualifying round

All four Indian girls seen in action in the first singles qualifying round of the L & T Mumbai Open WTA USD 125K Series bit the dust in straight sets at the Cricket Club of India's courts here today.
Those who got ousted without putting up a semblance of a fight were India no. 3 Pranjala Yadlapalli, no. 4 Riya Bhatia, no. 7 Natasha Palha, who got a wild card, and no. 9 Nidhi Chilumula.
Pranjala, 18 and ranked 500th in the world, lost 0-6 0-6 to former world junior no. 2 Ana Bogdan of Romania, a wild card and seeded no. 1, in the qualifiers with a world ranking of 111.

Pranjala was overwhelmed by the tall and big-serving Bogdan who fired down seven aces even as the Indian committed five double-faults on her own serve.
Bhatia, ranked 545, was felled 6-3 6-0 by Alize Lim of France, seeded fifth at this stage with a rank of 308.
The 20-year-old Riya made a promising start against her higher-ranked 27-year-old French opponent with an early break to seize a 3-0 lead. But, thereafter she completely fizzled out and lost the next 12 games.

Wild card Natasha, the India no. 7 who is ranked a lowly 783, slumped to a 1-6 0-6 defeat against second-seeded Deniz Khazhniuk of Israel, ranked 274th in the world.

The fourth Indian girl in action, Chilumula, who is ranked ninth nationally and a distant 855th globally, was beaten 6-1 6-3 by no. 7 seed Anna Morgina of Russia, who is ranked 337th.
Four more Indian girls - national no. 1 Ankita Raina, no. 2 Karman Kaur Thandi, no. 5 Rutuja Bhosale and no. 6 Zeel Desai - will be seen in the singles main draw of the tournament commencing on November 20.
Australia's Naiktha Bains, of Indian origin, provided some cheer to the home country fans as she came through her first qualifying round match.
The 19-year-old England-born girl, ranked 374th in the world, showed good touch and variety in her play to sideline Cornelia Lister of Sweden in straight sets.

Naiktha cruised to a 6-2 6-0 win against the 437th ranked Cornelia and later said she was glad to be in Mumbai and playing her maiden WTA event in India.
"It's great to be here in Mumbai and India. I arrived here on Thursday and just love this place. Both my grandparents are from Punjab and it feels nice to play here in India," said Naiktha, who was born in England and moved to Australia with her parents at the age of eight.
Meanwhile, the tournament lost some sheen following the pull-out of former world no. 2 Vera Zvonareva of Russia because of an injury sustained in the Hua Hin Challenger.

"I am writing on behalf of Vera Zvonareva to extend her apologies for withdrawing from your tournament.
Unfortunately, she has got injured (rib problem) in Hua Hin (in Thailand) and currently not able to practice, so she is not able to be ready for the Mumbai event," said her agent Maya Kurilova in a message to Tournament Director Prashant Sutar.
First qualifying round results: Singles: 1 WC-Ana Bogdan (ROU) bt Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) 6-0 6-0; 8-Naiktha Bains (AUS) bt Comelia Lister (SWE) 6-2 6-0; 2-Deniz Khazaniuk (ISR) bt WC Natasha Palha (IND) 6-1 6-0; 6-Ling Zhang bt Oksana Kalashnikova (GEO) 4-6 6-1 6-1; 3-Hiroko Kuwata (JPN) bt Naoko Ito (JPN) 6-0 6-0; 7-Anna Morgina (RUS) bt Nidhi Chilumula (IND) 6-1 6-3; 4-Julia Glushko (ISR) bt Ksenia Parkina (KGZ) 6-3 6-2; 5-Alize Lim (France) bt Riya Bhatia (IND) 6-3 6-0.