ITF Mysuru Open – Women’s World Tennis Tour: Smriti shock for fancied Delaunay

Top seed Shrivalli tested in opening match

Mysuru: Unheralded Smriti Bhasin of India got the $15,000 ITF Women’s World Tour event off to a rocking start with a stunning win over fifth-seeded Carolann Delaunay of New Caledonia in the first round of ITF Mysuru Open, Women’s World Tennis Tour, at the Mysore Tennis Club courts, here yesterday.

The 21-year-old southpaw from Hyderabad, struggled early on, but once she found the rhythm and range, there was no stopping Smriti, who eventually scored a 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory. A little later, on a hot and humid day, top-seeded Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty of India survived mid-match blues before overcoming a fighting Sonal Patil 7-5, 6-1 in her opener.

Smriti, 21, whose season early on was hit by a knee injury, was tentative to start with, struggling to get first serves in. To make matters worse, she committed far too many errors to give Delaunay an easy ride.

The loss of the first set seemed to jolt Smriti out of her slumber. Once she began to slow down the pace of play and got her first serve percentage up, the Indian started to call the shots and pocketed the second set without dropping a game. Smriti didn’t take the foot off the pedal in the decider and ran away a  comfortable winner.

Soha-Akanksha pair wins

National champions Soha Sadiq and Akanksha Nitture of Karnataka breezed past Karnataka’s wildcard pair of Kashvi Sunil and Arzan Khorakiwala 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of doubles action. Barring a brief resistance early in the second set, the fourth seeds were largely untroubled.

Results – Round 1

[Prefix denotes seeding, Indians unless mentioned]

Singles: 3-Elena Jamshidi (Den) bt Vanshita Pathania 6-1, 6-1; 7-Akanksha Nitture bt Diva Bhatia 6-3, 6-1; 2-Jessie Aney (USA) bt Anjali Rathi 6-2, 6-0; 8-Humera Baharmus bt Amodini Naik 7-5, 6-4; Shria Atturu (USA) bt Paavanii Paathak 6-1, 6-3; Smriti Bhasin bt 5-Carolann Delaunay (Caledonia) 4-6, 6-0, 6-2; Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty bt Sonal Patil 7-5, 6-1; Sahira Singh bt Abhilasha Bista (Nep) 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles: Polina Kaibekova/ Ralina Kalimullina (Rus) bt Kashish Bhatia/ Saumya Vig 6-2, 6-2; 1-Jessie Aney (USA)/ Riya Bhatia bt Shria Atturu (USA)/ Anjali Rathi 6-3, 6-2; 4-Soha Sadiq/ Akanksha Nitture bt Kashvi Sunil/ Arzan Khorakiwala 6-0, 6-1; 3-Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi/ C. Delaunay (Cal) bt Sreenidhi Balaji/ Harshini Nagaraj 7-6, 6-3.