The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ankita starts favourite

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Ankita starts favourite

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Ankita Bhambri may be the player to beat, but the focus will be on Megha Vakaria and Tara Iyer in the ITF women's tennis tournament to be played at the DLTA Complex here from Monday.

Having beaten Megha, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Isha Lakhani in back to back matches on way to the title at the same venue last week, the 19-year-old Ankita has once again proved that she is the best among the pack after Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi, not just in terms of ranking.

It is a pity that the 349th ranked Ankita is trapped at this level when she should have been aiming higher and competing in bigger tournaments. Yet, it is a good augury that she has managed to win three singles titles so far this season despite having been hampered by an elbow injury.

The 664th ranked Megha had been playing nicely till she ran into Ankita. If she strikes her normal form, Megha is capable of beating anyone in this field including Isha whom she meets in the first round.

The seedings: 1. Ankita Bhambri; 2. Isha Lakhani; 3. Rushmi Chakravarthi; 4. Ren Jing (Chn); 5. Sanaa Bhambri; 6. Sandy Gumulya (Ina); 7. Ji Chun-Mei (Chn); 8. Parul Goswami.

The results (second and final qualifying round): Lu JIng-Jing (Chn) bt Vishika Chhetri 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-4; G. K. Shweta bt Ragini Vimal 5-0 (retired); Vishaka Sheoran bt Varsha Shivshankar 6-3, 6-1; Esha Sanghvi bt Inayat Khosla 2-1 (retired); Sampada Kanede bt Rohini Das 6-4, 6-2; Sandri Gangothri bt Apurvika Shukla 6-1, 6-1; Sagarika Phadke bt Karina Ahuja 6-4, 6-2; Sanjana Kapur bt Jilke Nelord 6-1, 6-2.

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