City girl Maithili goes down fighting in qualifying round

Nagpur, Feb 27

Local wild card entrant Maithili Mote went down fighting in the first round qualifying of the Aryan Pumps- MSLTA Womens 15K ITF world Tennis Tour Event being organised by Nagpur District Hard Court Tennis Association (NDHTA) on their tennis complex in Ramnagar.

In the event being held under the auspices of ITF , AITA and MSLTA the Nagpur girl got off to a promising start winning the first set 6-2 against 14th seeded Anjali Rathi in a all Indian clash .

But the experienced Bhandari turned tables to win the second set 6-1 and then force a super Tiebreak, Rathi took the tiebreak 10-4 to end the Nagpur girl challenge. In the other minor upset in the qualifying Maharashtra player Laalitya KALLURI upset Sixteenth seeded Yashika Venu 7-6(1),6-2 to enter the final round qualifiers.

The final round of the qualifying will be played 10.30 am onwards. Eight players from the qualifying will make it to the main draws starting Tuesday.

Results (First Qualifying Round): Sai Dedeepya Yeddyla (IND) [13] bt Priyanshi Bhanari (IND) 6-4,6-1; Shria Atturu (USA) [4] bt Niharika Deshmukh (IND) 6-1,7-6(4); Anjali Rathi (IND) [14] bt Maithili Mothe (IND) 2-6,6-1,10-4; Smriti Bhasan (IND) [8] bt Shefali Arora (IND) 6-1,6-0; Kashish Bhatia (IND) [15] Bt Dakshata Girishkumar Patel (IND) 7-5,6-1; Laalitya Kalluri (IND) Bt Yashika Venu (IND) 7-6(1),6-2. Jagmeet Kaur Grewal (IND) Bt Radhika Yadav (IND) 7-6(1),6-3; Prathiba Narayan Prasad Bt Pragathi Naryaan Prasad (IND) 6-4,6-3; Niditra Rajmohan (IND) [9] bt Kriti Tomar (IND) 6-2,6-0; Shreya Tatavarthy (IND) [2] Bt Hhimanshika Singh (IND) 6-2,6-2; Stefanie Auer (AUT) [5] Bt Vanshita Pathania (IND) 4-6,6-2,10-8; Paavanii Pathak (IND) Bt Sonashe Bhatnagar (IND) [12] 6-3,6-3; Avishka Gupta (IND) [11] Bt Bela Tamhankar (IND) 7-5,6-2.