India No 1 Ankita Raina bowed out in the second of the US Open qualifiers after a battling three-set loss to Czech Republic’s Denisa Allertova on Wednesday night.
The world No 194 won the first set in a tie-breaker but couldn’t keep up the momentum after that going down 7-6(5), 4-6, 2-6 in a match that lasted two hours and 17 minutes.
Allertova, a former world No 55 who has slipped 279 in the world after a prolonged absence, is a regular on the Grand Slam circuit with her best being the fourth round of Australian Open last year. After losing the first set, she turned the match around.
After exchanging two breaks apiece in the first set, what followed was a break fest with a total of 13 breaks of serve over the three sets. The Indian broke serve five times from the 11 break points she had while her opponent converted eight of her 17 break points. However, Raina was unable to hold serve in the decider, with three breaks to go down.
This leaves Sumit Nagal as the only Indian in the qualifiers. He will play Peter Polansky of Canada in the second round of qualifying on Thursday. Ramkumar Ramanathan had bowed out in the first round.
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