Ankita, Sonal through to second round of ITF meet

Mumbai, Mar 27 (UNI) Top seed Ankita Bhambri and qualifier Sonal Phadke began their campaign with easy opening round wins in the Shivaji Park Gymkhana-ITF 10,000 dollar women tennis tourney here today.

Phadke, ranked 802 in the WTA rankings, demolished compatriot and wild card entrant Parija Maloo 6-1, 6-0, while Ankita overcame a sluggish start before getting past unseeded Kavitha Krishnamurthy of Canada 63, 6-2.

While Phadke required less than an hour to seal her win, Ankita endured early problems in a shaky opening set beore regaining her form against Krishnamurthy in a match that lasted two hours.

In other matches, veteran Sai Jayalakshmi Jayaram of India went down to qualifier Nungnadda Wannasuk of Thailand 2-6, 1-6.

Unseeded Miki Miyamura of Japan struggled past wild card entrant Elenora Sidjemileva of Uzbekistan 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a match that lasted an hour-and-a-half.

UNI GS KU AY KN1750