India No 1 Ankita Raina got off to a brilliant start at the $60,000 ITF event in Luan, China. The 26-year-old defeated China’s Xinyu Jiang 6-4, 6-3 to reach the second round. Raina is seeded two in the tournament.
Elsewhere, Ramkumar Ramanathan lost to Turkey’s Cem İlkel 1-6, 6-7 in the second round of the ATP Challenger event in Busan. The Indian also bowed out in the men’s doubles, losing 2-6, 4-6 with his partner Brayden Schnur against Hsieh Cheng-peng and Christopher Rungkat.
In the doubles section of the same tournament, though, there is still hope as far as India is concerned. Sriram Balaji and his partner Jonathan Erlich will play Vishnu Vardhan and Toshihide Matsui in the quarter-final on Thursday.
However, there were a couple of more disappointments among India’s singles players. First up, Sumit Nagal lost 2-6, 5-7 to lower-ranked American player Ulises Blanch in the opening round of the ATP Challenger event in Rome.
Sasi Kumar Mukund lost 2-6, 1-6 against seventh seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia in the second round of the ATP Challenger event in Korea on Tuesday.
India’s doubles veterans Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes have both been knocked out of their respective tournaments. Bopanna lost in in the opening round of the Madrid Open, while Paes was ousted in the first round of the ATP Challenger event in Open du Pays d’Aix.
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