Second seed Emily Webley Smith of Britain had to sweat it out before sealing her berth in the second round of the ITF Gulbarga Open women’s Futures championship at the Dr Chandrashekar Patil stadium here on Tuesday.
Emily got the better of qualifier Hae Sung Kim of Korea 6-3, 6-7(5-7), 6-2 in the first-round encounter that lasted almost three hours.
Fourth seed Zi Yang of China, who hit her returns with power and precision, proved too good for the 15-year-old Rutuja Bhosale. The Chinese triumphed 6-0, 6-0.
There were also couple of upsets on the day.
Ukrainian teenager Oleksandra Korshivilli shocked sixth seed Ankita Raina 7-5, 6-1 while Hong Kong’s Nan-Nan Zhang took out seventh seed Japanese Yumi Miyazaki 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.
India’s veteran Rushmi Chakravarthi defeated Napatsakorn Sankaew of Thailand 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4.
Results (prefix denotes seedings, Indians unless specified): First round: 2-Emily Webley Smith (Gbr) bt Hae Sung Kim (Kor) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2; Oleksandra Korishvili (Ukr) bt 6-Ankita Raina 7-5, 6-1; Rushmi Chakravarthy bt Napatsakorn Sankaew (Tha) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4; 4-Zi Yang (Chn) bt Rutuja Bhosale 6-0, 6-0; Natasha Palha bt Shalaka Manjunath 7-5, 6-2; Sowjanya Bavisetty bt Shweta Rana 6-4, 6-3; 1-Wing-Yau Venise Chan (Hkg ) bt Varunya Wongteanchai (Tha) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Nan-Nan Zhang (Chn) bt 7-Yumi Miyazaki (Jpn) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; Risa Hasegawa (Jpn) bt Ho Ching Wu (Hkg) 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.
