Harshini Viswanadh and Sharmada Balu entered the second and final round of qualifying at the Federal Bank ITF Women’s Open Gurugram W35 in contrasting styles. In the opening round of qualifiers played at The Tennis Project here on Sunday, the 17-year-old Harshini who is ranked 37th on the AITA rankings was stretched by Abhaya Vemuri, ranked 13 ranks below her before eking out a 7-5, 3-6, 10-8 victory in the only match of the day that went to the decider.
Sharmada who is trying to make a comeback in the ITF circuit, upset a better ranked opponent than her – Snigdha Patibandla in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
Meanwhile, the highest seeded Indian in the qualifying draw 4th seed Vaishnavi Adkar, 6th seed Sowjanya Bavisetti and 8th seed Madhurima Sawant were amongst the 16 players who didn’t have to break a sweat to advance the final round earning byes.
Results
Singles Qualifying 1st Round (all Indians except where mentioned)
Siri Patil bt Mahi Trivedi 6-4, 6-4; Riya Sachdeva bt Suhani Gaur 7-5, 6-2; Richa Dadasaheb Chougule bt Ananya Yadav 6-0, 6-4; Divya Harindra Bhardwaj bt Rachita Talwar 6-2, 6-3; Samaira Malik bt Omna Yadav Davunaboina 6-2, 6-1; Shria Atturu (USA) bt Gayathri Sivakumar 6-2, 6-1; Apurva Vemuri bt Saily Prashantkumar Thakkar 6-2, 6-0; Ishwari Matere bt Ritu Rai 6-1, 6-2; Yubrani Banerjee bt Vanshika Choudhary 6-2, 6-3; Harshini Viswanadh bt Abhaya Vemuri 7-5, 3-6, 10-8; Himaanshika Singh bt Sanya Yadav 6-2, 6-2; Sharmada Balu bt Snigdha Patibandla 6-1, 6-3; Sahira Singh bt Arthi Muniyan 6-2, 6-2; Diva Bhatia bt Vidhi Jani 6-3, 7-5; Sachi Sharma bt Jigyasa Narsinghani 6-0, 6-2; Shefali Arora bt Esha Singh 6-2, 6-2.
