Defending champion Ankita Raina and top seed Jia-Jing Lu were both taken to the distance by their respective opponents before they entered the second round of the USD 25,000 NECC-ITF women's tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana here today.
No. 3 seed Raina seemed off colour against fellow-Indian Sowjanya Bavisetti, who took the first set via the tie-break 7-4, but then melted under the blazing sun to lose the second set 6-1.
Sowyajnya offered some resistance in the third and deciding set before Ankita found some depth and power in her forehand winning returns to close out the contest 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 7-5 on court no. 2.
Top-seeded Jia-Jing of China seemed troubled by having to play on court no. 3 against Russia's Anastasia Pribylova.
The Chinese world no. 213 won the first set 6-2 but the Russian, who is ranked 147 places below Jia-Jing, blanked her to win the second set 6-0 and force the decider.
The third set too was a closely-fought affair before Jia-Jing found the winning shots in the 12th game to triumph 6-2 0-6 7-5.
Number 2 seed Polina Leykina of Russia, on the other hand, needed only an hour to beat Chieh-Yu Hsu of Taipei 6-3 6-3 to enter round two.
Russia's Ana Morgina scored an upset win over eighth seed Deniz Khazaniuk of Israel as the two slugged it out for more than two-and-a-half hours in a three-set contest. Morgina finally won 6-2, 0-6, 7-5.
Results: Women's singles (1st round): Georgina
Garcia-Perez (Esp) bt Riya Bhatia (Ind) 6-2 6-4; 3-Ankita Raina (Ind) bt Sowjanya Bavisetti (Ind) 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 7-5; 6-Barbara Haas (Aut) bt Xu Liu Sun (Chn) 6-2 6-4; 2-Polina Leykina (Rus) bt Chieh-Yu Hsu (Tpe) 6-3 6-3; 7-Nina Stojanovic (Srb) bt Prarthana Thombare (Ind) 6-1 6-3; 1-Jia-Jing Lu (Chn) bt Anastasia Pribylova (Rus) 6-2 0-6 7-5; Anna Morgina (Rus) bt 8-Deniz Khazaniuk (Isr) 6-3 0-6 6-4; 4-Fiona Ferro (Fra) bt Harmony Tan (Fra) 6-2 6-2; Snehadevi Reddy (Ind) bt Mihika Yadav (Ind) 6-1 6-0; Eric Doroteja (Srb) bt Karman Kaur Thandi (Ind) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4; Aryna Sabalenka (Blr) bt Natasha Palha (Ind) 6-3 3-6 6-2.
Doubles (1st round): Georgina Garcia-Perez (Esp) and Yana Sizikova (Rus) bt Jelena Simic (Bih) and Ana Veselinovic (Mne) 6-1 7-6 (8-6); 1-Valentyna Ivakhnenko (Rus) and Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) bt Anastasia Pribylova (Rus) and Anna Pribylova (Rus) 6-1 6-0; 2-Chieh-yu Hsu (Tpe) and Prarthana Thombare (Ind) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) and Rishika Sunkara (Ind) 6-2 6-0.
