Rushmi sails through; Sanaa falls to Isha in women's tennis

Mumbai, May 22 (UNI) Top seed Rushmi Chakrvarthy sailed through to the second round while fifth seed Sanaa Bhambri fell to unseeded Isha Lakhani in the first round of 10,000 dollar MSLTA-ITF Women's Circuit Tennis Tournament at the G A Ranade Complex here today.

The top seed Rushmi was up against Sagarika Phadke in her first match of the tournament. After a few sluggish opening games between the two players Rushmi used her reach and power to good effect to take the first set 6-3. The second set was a one sided affair that didn't last very long with Rushmi winning it 6-1.

Fifth seed Sanaa Bhambri was up against her bitter rival in unseeded Isha Lakhani. Lakhani has seen her ranking drop substantially in the recent past but she continued her winning streak against Bhambri to begin her climb back up the ITF rankings.

Lakhani won the first set 6-0 and then was made to work for her 6-3 win in the second set.

The match of the day and tournament was between two foreign players-unseeded Nicole Riner of Switzerland and eighth seed Nicole Clerico of Italy. The two played some great tennis moving each other around on court on a real hot day. The opening set saw four straight breaks. Riner opened the proceedings but lost her serve and then broke back to draw level. Riner herself under pressure with five double faults but she managed to hold her serve to take the opening set 7-5; breaking Clerico on four occasions.

The second set saw the high level of tennis continuing with some long drawn rallies that tested the fitness of both players. Both, Clerico and Riner seemed unwilling to let go of the points as they kept trying to find winners. It was a reduced number of double faults in the second set from Riner that made the difference. Riner save a set point that Clerico had to draw level at 5-5 and then broke and held her serve to win the set 7-5 in 2 hours and 31 minutes.

Results: Singles (1st Rd): 1-Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) bt Sagarika Phadke (IND) 6-3, 6-1; 2-Ankita Bhambri (IND) bt Parul Goswami (IND) 6-3, 6-3; 4-Marinne Giraud (MRI) bt Martina Caciotti (ITA) 6-0, 6-2; Isha Lakhani (IND) bt 5-Sanaa Bhambri (IND) 6-0, 6-3; Nicole Riner (SUI) bt 8-Nicole Clerico (ITA) 7-5, 7-5; Poojashree Venkatesha (IND) bt Vishakha Sheoran (IND) 6-1, 6-4; Kelsey Sundaram (USA) bt Varsha Shivashankar (IND) 7-5, 7-6(2); Geeta Manohar (IND) bt Ragini Vimal (IND) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3; Sweta Solanki (IND) bt Vishika Chhetri (IND) 6-4, 6-0.

Doubles (1st Rd): 3-Marinne Giraud (MRI)/ Isha Lakhani (IND) bt Parija Maloo/ Sweta Solanki (IND) 6-1, 6-1.

UNI