It was a busy week for our boys and girls around the world, with mostly positive results coming out of everywhere, except they could have been even more positive had all chances been grabbed. Here’s a summary –
Ankita upsets former Grand Slam champ Stosur, but doubles partners leaves her stranded –
Ankita Raina registered the biggest win of her career, beating 3rd seeded and 77th ranked Samantha Stosur 7-5 2-6 7-5, in a 2 hour and 50 minutes long battle at the WTA 125K event in Anning, China. Stosur is the winner of the 2011 US Open and is a former world number 4.
But she could not follow it up with another win in the 2nd round, losing from a strong position against 209th ranked Kai Lin Zhang from China. She was 5-1 up in the deciding set, before losing 6-1 6-7(2) 6-7(7).
Meanwhile, Ankita had to put with up unprofessional behaviour from her partner in the doubles event. She partnered with Ashley Kratzer, from the USA, to beat the 4th seeds in the first round of doubles. But Kratzer chose to leave the venue after having lost in singles, without informing
Ankita, understandably upset, said “How much time does it take to drop a message? This is unprofessional behaviour from her. I only got to know from the tournament director that she’s left”
Ramkumar makes SF at Nanchang Challenger while Sumit is QFist in Tallahassee
Ramkumar Ramanathan put up a strong display on the clay courts of Nanchang, China, before losing to top seed Jordan Thompson in the SF. Ramkumar seemed to have upped his game as compared to last week’s Anning event, where he may have been struggling with the windy conditions. Our doubles teams had a forgettable outing here.
He will now look to build on the good week at the ATP Challenger event on hard courts in Seoul, Korea.
Sumit meanwhile, seems to have regain his lost touch, post injury struggles, as he beat an impressive set of players to make his first Challenger QF since the ATP Bengaluru Challenger in November 2018.
In the 2nd round, he beat former top 30 player Santiago Giraldo. Sumit was up 6-2 4-3(40-0) when Giraldo retired from the match. Giraldo has had wins over the likes of Murray, Tsonga, Cilic, Thiem, Fognini, etc on clay.
In his QF match against 133rd ranked Corentin Moutet from France, Sumit was two breaks up at 5-2 in the deciding set, and served for the match twice, but failed to close it out, before the Frenchman prevailed.
Pranjala has RU finish at ITF $25K Andijan, Uzbekistan
Returning from an injury is always tough. But Pranjala seems to have put it behind her, as she had her first big run after she had injured her back earlier this year.
Arjun/VSP finish RU in Men’s Doubles at ITF $25K(+H) Nigeria
Arjun and VSP had yet another fruitful week in doubles in Nigeria. Arjun, meanwhile, had a close loss in the singles event.
