India's Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare entered the singles second round while their compatriot Mohika Yadav, a wild card, put up a gutsy fight before losing in the NECC-ITF women's USD 25,000 tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana, here today.
Fourth seed Ankita, the India no. 1, saved four match-points in the third set to beat compatriot Rutuja Bhosale 6-3 2-6 7-6 (8-6) in 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Rutuja, who is currently studying in the United States, showed immense improvement in her game when she rallied brilliantly after losing the first set 3-6 to take the second 6-2 and take the match into the decider.
Rutuja carried on with her form to earn two match-points, but Ankita saved them to force the tie-breaker. Rutuja then raced to 6-4 lead, but Ankita against saved two match-points before taking the tie-break 8-6.
Firing down seven aces, Pune girl Prarthana - a wild card - ousted qualifier Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 6-2 6-1. Though she committed four double faults as against two by Katarzyna, Prarthana was always on the high and won in an hour.
Up against the eighth seeded Veronika Kapshay, Mihika gave a good display of her return shots that frustrated the Ukrainian through the match.
Mihika was down in the first set, but she rallied brilliantly to take the set to 5-5 before Veronika found the opening she was looking for. After taking the first set 7-5, Veronika raced ahead in the second only to let Mihika make a rally as the Ukrainian committed some unforced errors.
After more than two hours on court, Mihika finally lost her steam and the match.
In other action, top seed Anastasiya Vasylyeva of Ukraine thrashed Indian wild card Sharmadaa Baluu 6-1 6-0 and third seed Sofia Shapatova of Georgia defeated Natela Dzalamidze of Russia 6-4 3-6 6-3.
Qualifier Cristina Ene of Romania caused the major upset of the day when she beat the second seed Cindy Burder of the Netherlands in straight sets 6-4 6-3.
Other results (1st round): 3-Sofia Shapatava (Geo) bt Silvia Njiric (Cro) 6-3 3-6 6-4; Margarita Lazareva (Rus) bt Alyona Sotnikova (Ukr) 6-4, 6-4.
