JOIN USThe Indian challenge in the singles event at the USD 10,000 CCI-ITF women’s tennis tournament came to an end on Wednesday with the elimination of Nidhi Chilmula and Rishika Sunkara in the second round here.
After the exit of six home country participants in round one on Tuesday, Nidhi and Rishika carried India’s hopes in the tournament but crashed out by losing in straight sets to their round two opponents at the Cricket Club of India’s courts.
Nidhi failed to win a single game against top seed Keren Shlomo, routing the Indian 6-0, 6-0 while Rishika was beaten 6-2, 6-2 by unseeded Serbian Tamara Curovic.
Thailand’s Nungnadda Wannasuk, world ranked 598, caused the biggest upset of the day when she packed off third seed Agnese Zucchini of Italy, ranked 409, 6-3, 6-1 to enter the quarterfinals.
Her compatriot Varunya Wongteanchai also produced a solid performance to show the exit door to Turkey’s fourth seed Melis Sezer.
The Thai player, who came through the qualifying rounds, dropped the opening set but bounced back nicely to take the subsequent sets to complete a deserving 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Another Thai player to make to the last eight was fifth seed Peangtarn Plipuech, who defeated unseeded Chinese Zi Yang in three sets in another second round encounter.
Results (second round): 1-Keren Shlomo (Isr) bt Nidhi Chilumula (Ind) 6-0, 6-0; 5-Peangtarn Plipuech (Tha) bt Zi Yang (Chn) 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-2; Varunya Wongteanchai (Tha) bt 4-Melis Sezer (Tur) 4-6, 6-4, 7-5; Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic (Ger) bt 6-Deniz Khazaniuk (Isr) 7-6(4), 6-4; 8-Nicole Clerico (Ita) bt Karoline Kurz (Aut) 6-4, 4-6, 7-5; Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) bt 3-Agnese Zucchini (Ita) 6-3, 6-1; 7-Jovana Jaksic (Srb) bt Maria Sakkari (Gre) 6-1, 1-0 (retd); Tamara Curovic (Srb) bt Rishika Sunkara (Ind) 6-2, 6-2.