Rishika, Nidhi make progress

Nidhi Chilumula during her first-round win over Dhruthi Venugopal in Bangalore on Monday. DH photo

Fourth seed Rishika Sunkara and seventh seed Nidhi Chilumula of India won their respective opening singles matches in straight sets to kick start their Zuari Garden City Open, $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament campaign on a positive note at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association stadium here on Monday. 

Rishika edged her Malaysian opponent Theiviya Selvarajoo 6-4, 6-2 while Nidhi saw off a stiff first-set challenge to register a 7-6, 6-1 victory against fellow Indian Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal. 

It was an easy start for second seed Fatma Al Nabhani who swept past Arthi Muniyan to advance to the second round. The Omani player spent little time on the court as she overwhelmed the Indian player 6-1, 6-2 to march ahead.

Other Indian players advancing to the second round were Sai Samhitha Chamarthi and Vaniya Dangwal. 

The Chinese campaign too got off a rousing start, as Xi-Yao Wang and Chun Yan He advanced into the next round. The eighth seed Wang cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Amrita Mukherjee whereas Yan-He ousted Nithya Raj Babu Raj 6-1, 6-1. 

In the doubles category, Sharmada Balu and Prarthana Thombare, who is the singles top seed, beat Sai Samhitha Chamarthi and Etee Maheta 6-2, 6-3 to make progress.
Results: Singles first round (Prefix denotes seeding, Indians unless mentioned): 2- Fatma Al Nabhani (Oma) bt Arthi Muniyan 6-1, 6-2; 7-Nidhi Chilumula bt Dhr­uthi Tatachar Venugopal 7-6, 6-1; Sai Samhitha Chamarthi bt Rishika Ravindran 6-1, 6-2; Vaniya Dangwal bt Srishti Slaria 6-1, 6-3; Chun-Yan-HE (Chi) bt Nithya Raj Babu Raj 6-1, 6-1; 8-Xi-Yao Wang (Chi) bt Amrita Mukheree 6-2, 6-3; 4-Rishika Sunkara bt Theiviya Selvarajoo (Mal) 6-4, 6-2. 

Doubles: Pragati Nataraj/ Nupur Umashankar bt Muskan Ranjan/ Sansriti Ranjan 6-3, 6-0; Ching-Wen Hsu (Tpe)/ Natasha Patha bt Shivani Manjanna/ Rishika Ravindran 6-0, 6-2; Arthi Muniyan/ Moulika Ram lost to Rushmi Chakravarthy/ Bhuvan Kalva 6-2, 6-0; Shwetha Rana/ Simran Kaur Sethi bt Rutuja Bhosale/ Nidhi Chilumula 6-4, 6-0; Sai Samhitha Cham­arthi/ Etee Maheta lost to Sharmada Balu/ Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 6-3. 

Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks