India’s Karman Kaur Thandi played top class tennis to oust compatriot Kanika Vaidya 6-4, 6-4 to move into the last-16 of the RGUHS ITF Kalaburagi Open here on Monday.
Karman served with power and her returns at times brooked no reply from Kanika. The tall and lanky 17-year-old broke Kanika’s serve in the fifth game and then comfortably held her serves to clinch the first set.
The second set saw Kanika breaking Karman in the second game. Just when it seemed that the match would witness a decider, Karman stormed back, breaking Kanika in the third and fifth games while ensuring she held serves to move into the next round where she awaits the winner of the contest between top seed Prerna Bhambri of India and Xi-Yao Wang of China.
Meanwhile, second seed Natasha Palha, fourth seed Prarthna Thombare, sixth seed Nidhi Chilumula and eighth seed Riya Bhatia breezed into the second round with comfortable victories.
Results: (Prefix denotes seedings):
Singles (I round, Indians unless mentioned): Karman Kaur Thandi bt Kanika Vaidya 6-4, 6-4; Anusha Kondavetti bt Preethi Ujjini 6-4, 6-4; Aastha Dargude bt He Chun-Yan (Chn) 7-5, 2-6, 6-2; 4-Prarthana G Thombare bt Abinikka Renganathan 7-5, 6-2; 6-Nidhi Chilumula bt Simran Kejriwal 6-1, 6-0; Ram Moulika bt Soha Sadiq 6-7 (8), 6-1, 6-3; 8-Riya Bhatia b Plobrung Plipuech (Tha) 7-6 (8); 6-2; Tamachan Momkoonthod (Tha) bt Pragati Solankar 6-1, 6-0.
Doubles: (Round of 16): 3-Prerna Bhambri / Kanika Vaidya bt Anusha Kondaveeti / Sweta Nalekala 6-1, 6-1; 4-Druthi Tatachar Venugopal / Karman Kaur Thandi bt Varunya Chandrasekhar / Simran Kejriwal 6-0, 6-2; Sai Samhitha Chamarthi / He Chun-Yan (Chn) bt Sneha Padamata / Moulika Ram 6-2, 4-6, 12-10; Abinikka Renganathan / Soha Sadiq bt Dakshata Girishkumar Patel / Sai Yeddula 7-6 (3), 6-3.
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