Ankita, Rutuja knocked out of Ganesh Naik ITF C'ships

Vashi, Dec 11 (PTI) Indian tennis players, Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale crashed of the USD 25000 Ganesh Naik ITF Women's tennis championships after going down in their respective second round singles matches here today.

Three other top seeds -- second seeded Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia, third seeded Gioia Barbeiri of Italy and sixth seeded Jade Windley of Great Britain also lost their respective matches to crash out of the tournament.

Ankita, seeded fifth, raised hopes of registering an easy victory by clinching the opening set but here opponent -- Thai player Peangtarn Plipuech -- came back from a set down to win 4-6 7-6(7-5) 6-1 in two hours and five minutes.

Georgia's Oksana Kalashnikova ended the campaign of another Indian -- wild card entrant Rutuja Bhosale -- 6-2 6-3 to make it to the last eight stage of the competition.

Meanwhile, Great Britain's doubles specialist Anna Smith, currently ranked 572, registered one of the biggest upsets of the day when she defeated Marcinkevica (229) 1-6 6-3 6-3 in an hour and 55 minutes.

18-year-old Kamila Kerimbayeva of Kazakhstan, runners-up at the Pune event last week, stunned Barbeiri 6-2 6-1 in just an hour, while Armenian qualifier Ani Amraghyan registered another upset by beating Windley (310) 6-4 2-6 6-4.

In another second round match, top seeded Magda Linette of Poland stayed on course for the title by outplaying Thailand's Nungnadda Wannasuk 6-3 6-2 in an hour and seven minutes.

Ankita, Rutuja exit to end India's challenge in ITF singles

Ankita, Rutuja exit to end India's challenge in ITF singles

Mumbai: India's challenge in the singles came to an end today with the exit of fifth seed Ankita Raina and wild card Rutuja Bhosale in round two of the USD 25,000 Ganesh Naik ITF Women's Tennis Championships today.

India's top player Ankita was edged out by her less fancied opponent Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand in a two-hour-and-five-minute tussle at the Navi Mumbai Sports Association courts. The Thai girl came back after dropping the first set to win 4-6 7-6(7-5) 6-1.

Eighth-seeded Georgian Oksana Kalashnikova ended the run of Rutuja 6-2 6-3 to enter the last eight of the event.

In the first set Ankita broke the hard-serving Plipuech in the ninth game to clinch it 6-4 and then led 5-4 and 6-5 in the second to raise visions of victory, but her rival held on in the 10th game and 12th games to force a tie-break.

The Thai, playing a patient backcourt game till then, changed her pace and rushed to the net often in the tie-break to break Raina's rhythm and win it 7-5 to level set scores.

In the decider, Raina looked jaded and went down without a fight. Three other seeds -- No. 2 Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia, No. 3 Gioia Barbeiri of Italy and sixth seed Jade Windley of Britain -- were also dumped out of the singles.

Britain's doubles specialist Anna Smith shocked Latvian Diana 1-6 6-3 6-3 in five minutes under 2 hours, while 18-year-old Kamila Kerimbayeva of Kazakhstan, runner-up at the Pune ITF event last week, stunned Italian Gioia 6-2 6-1 in just an hour.

Armenian qualifier Ani Amraghyan registered the fourth upset of the day when she got past 6th-seeded Briton Jade Windley 6-4 2-6 6-4 to make it to the quarterfinals.

In other second round matches top seed Magda Linette of Poland stayed on course for the title disposing of Thailand's Nungnadda Wannasuk 6-3 6-2.