Elodie packs off O'Brien

Frenchwoman beats top seed in straight sets; Indians disappoint

Playing in just her second year as a professional and planning to retire from the sport next month, the 26-year-old Elodie cashed in on most of the chances that came her way in shutting out a shocked O’Brien 6-2, 6-1 in a little over an hour on a chilly day at the KSLTA courts.

“I was nervous when I saw the draw,” said a beaming Elodie, who hails from New Caledonia, after dismantling the world number 181. “Up against the top seed, I didn’t give myself any chance. I just wanted to go out there and play. I am surprised at my victory and hopefully, I can keep doing it until the end of the tournament.”

There were no signs of any nerves from Elodie on the court. Right from the time she broke the top seed in the opening game, the world no 521 revelled as her opponent kept making error after error. In fact, with O’Brien committing as many as 11 double-faults and struggling to find any sort of rhythm, all Eoldie had to do was keep her game simple and she did it very fairly well to book her place in the pre-quarterfinals.

The Brisbane-based Elodie made a promising start, breaking Katie’s serve twice to take a 3-0 lead. Just when things appeared to be going out of control, the Britain bounced back to break Elodie and make it 1-3 after the latter double-faulted twice. But the joy was shortlived as Elodie broke back immediately and then went on to serve out the first set.

O’Brien started the second set strongly, opening up a 40-15 lead on Elodie’s serve in the first game. But to her dismay, unforced errors flowed unrelentingly as Elodie held on before winning the next game for a 2-0 lead. From thereon, O’Brien’s game went from bad to worse, her misery ending aptly with a double-fault on match point.
Second seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand showed how she won the Wimbledon Junior title in 2009, crushing Tamaryn Hendler 6-2, 6-0 while India’s Shivika Burman and lucky loser Sheethal Goutham went down tamely.
Shivika was rolled over 6-0, 6-1 by Varatchaya Wongteanchai while Nicha Lertpitaksinchai wiped out Sheethal by the same margin.
DH News Service
First round results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Singles: Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) bt Shivika Burman (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Elodie Rogge-Dietrich (Fra) bt 1-Katie O’Brien (GBR) 6-2, 6-1; Alyona Sotnikova (Ukr) bt 6-Sachie Ishizu (Jpn) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; 7-Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) bt Sakiko Shimizu (Jpn) 6-1, 6-1; 5-Tadeja Majeric (Slo) Ayumi Oka (Jpn) 6-0, 7-6 (7-4); Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (Tha) bt Sheetal Goutham (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; 2-Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (Tha) bt Tamaryn Hendler (Bel) 6-2, 6-0.
Doubles: Anna Rapoport (Rus)/ Alyona Sotnikova (Ukr) bt Kei Sekine (Jpn)/ Ana Shkudun (Ukr) 7-5, 6-4; Yi Chen (Tpe)/ Kumiko Iijima (Jpn) bt Prerna Bhambri/ Shivika Burman (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Trang Huynh Phuong Dai (Tha)/ Peangthan Pliphuech (Tha) bt 4-Mari Inoue (Jpn)/ Ayumi Oka (Jpn) 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 13-11; Sheethal Goutham/ Kyra Shroff (Ind) bt Natasha Palha/ Sharon Sanchana Paul (Ind) 4-6, 6-4, 10-7; Tamaryn Hendler (Bel)/ Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) bt Julia Glushko (Isr)/ Margarita-Greta Skripnik (Isr) 6-4, 6-2.