Karnataka’s Preeti Ujjaini upset eighth-seeded Mrinalini Alla 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (9-7) in the opening round of the girls section in the Bowring Institute Asian Tennis Federation junior ranking (U-14) tournament here on Monday.

Preeti, who was trailing 2-5 in the decider, broke Mrinalini’s serve twice to take the set to the tie-breaker where she held her serve and nerve to outplay her fancied opponent.

Earlier, Preeti had won the first set easily before Mrinalini clawed her way back by capitalising on her opponent’s unforced errors to take the second.

In the second round, Preeti will take on Ankita Bhatia who beat Spurthi Shivalingaiah 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in a match which was played amidst frayed tempers. Ankita took the first 6-4 and was well on course to win the second. But upset with a couple of line calls, she lost her rhythm and started making errors one too many.

At one stage, both the chair umpire and the chief referee had to ask the player and her mother, who was seen repeatedly instigating her from the courtside, to calm down.

Spurthi made use of her opponent’s lapse in concentration and drew level by winning the second set 7-5.
However, Ankita regained her composure in the third set with most of her serves bang on target and with Spurthi struggling with her returns, Ankitha took the set 6-2.

Ritu advances
Karnataka’s S P Ritu also entered the second round with a 6-4, 6-1 win over sixth seeded Urmila Gunaganji.
In the boys section, most of the top seeds had it easy with eighth seed Jaishwal defeating the only foreign competitor in the event — Vietnam’s Nguyen Hoang Thien 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Results (I round): Prefix denotes seedings (Indians unless mentioned):

Boys: 1-Rohit Bist bt Sibimon 6-2, 6-2; Darp Aniruddha Milind bt Hariharan Sabareesh 6-3, 0-6, 6-4; 5-Adwait Sadwilkar bt Vikrant Adamya 6-1, 6-0; 4-Ronit Bist bt Soni Jay 6-2, 6-1; R Ramkumar bt B Supreeth 6-0, 6-0; Vinod Gowda bt S Karan 6-1, 6-1; 6-Tushal Thawani bt Anvit Bendre 6-1, 6-2; 8-Jaishwal D bt Nguyen Hoang Thien (Vie) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; Vishal Passi bt R Sharad 5-7, 7-5, 6-3; S M Abdullah bt Anirudh Puranic 6-3, 6-1; 7-Sharan Patil bt Arjun Khade 6-0, 7-6 (11-9); 3-Rakshay Thakkar bt R Vigneshwaran bt 6-3, 7-6 (9-7); Rohit Raje bt Rohan Gaonkar 6-1, 6-2; Digvijay Singh bt Varun S 6-0, 6-1; S Raghavendra bt S Shukla 6-1, 6-4; Mayur Mohith bt Anand Ritwik 6-1, 6-1.

Girls: Anushka Bharghava bt Sai Samhitha 6-2, 6-2; Bhuvana R bt Neena Reddy 6-3, 6-2; Ritu S P bt  6-Urmila Gunaganji 6-4, 6-1; 4-Parminder Kaur bt Nehal Sahni 6-1, 6-2; Sukhmani Kaur bt Jesal Seth 6 -0, 6-2; Pooja Kudesia bt Aishwarya 6-3, 7-5; Preeti Ujjaini bt 8-Mrinalini Alla 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (9-7); Ravina Shetty bt Nitya Raj 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 7-6 (7-4); Ankita Bhatia bt Spurthi Shivalingaiah 6-4, 5-7, 6-2; 3-V K Visesh bt Supriya S 6-1, 6-3.; B Sowjanya bt Megha Sehrawat 6-1, 6-2; Vinitha Reddy bt Spoorthi Mallampati 6-2, 6-1; Saranya Shivani Sharma bt 5-Gowri Boindoor 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.