Sunitha crash out as Indian challenge ends

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) Seventh seed Sunitha Rao failed to match the guiles of giant killer Ekaterina Dzehalevich (Belarus) and lost 5-7,2-6 as Indian challenge came to an end in the USD 50,000 ITF women's tennis tournament here today.

In an encounter which lasted 100 minutes, Ekaterina survived some initial hiccups but once she got going Sunitha's challenge faded away.

Ekaterina, who had shocked second seed Mathilde Johansson (France) in the second round, made few unforced errors compare to Sunitha who looked tentative most of the time.

The Indian raised the hopes of her supporters when she broke Ekaterina in the third game and then held her own serve to go up 3-1.

She had a chance to further consolidate her lead in the fifth game but missed a couple of easy smashes. Ekaterina levelled the score at 3-3 by breaking the Indian who committed a double fault and then missed a smash.

Ekaterina broke Sunitha in the 12th game to win the first set and she had no problem as Sunitha threw in the towel to wrap up the second set and the match.

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