Riya Bhatia won an International Tennis Federation title after a gap of two years as she lifted the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday.
This was the 22-year-old’s biggest career title, beating higher-ranked Nastja Kolar 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in the final. In the semi-finals, she had beaten compatriot Rutuja Bhosale 6-4, 6-7(5), 5-7.
This was Bhatia’s third career ITF title. She had last won the $15K ITF event in Colombo in 2017 and the $10K event in Sharm El Sheikh in 2016.
On the ATP Tour, India No 1 Prajnesh Gunneswaran began with a win at the ATP Challenger in Liuzhou, China. The top seed at the event beat Nicolas Barrientos 6-2, 6-1 and will play WuTung-lin in the next round.
Sidharth Rawat, the other Indian in the singles draw, went down in the second round to 14th seed Zhe Lin 6-2, 6-3. He had earlier beaten Xin Gao 6-4, 6-4 in the opener.
In the doubles at Liuzhou, India’s Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and partner Adil Shamasdin, the second seeds, were beaten in the first round by Matej and Ivan Sabanov 6-4, 6-3.
At the Traralgon Challenger in Australia, Sasi Kumar Mukund beat Germany’s Sebastian Fanselow 7-6, 6-3 in his opener. The 10th seed will take on 8th seed Alejandra Tabilo from Chile for a place in the quarter-finals.
Earlier on Sunday, Divij Sharan and partner Artem Sitak were beaten 6-3, 5-7, 10-7 by Santiago Gonzalez and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the final qualifying round of the Basel Open.
Buy an annual Scroll Membership to support independent journalism and get special benefits.
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!