Rutuja, Karman go down fighting to seeded opponents

Rutuja Bhosale was unable to capitalise on a bright start against sixth seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and lost 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Arera Club on Thursday.

It was a similar story for Karman Kaur Thandi, as she went down to fifth seed Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

The country’s No. 1 player, Ankita Raina was up against second seed Joanne Zuger of Switzerland and managed to eke out seven games in her second-round match.

The Indian challenge ended in doubles as well as Rutuja and Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan lost 11-9 in the super tie-break by En Shuo Liang and Diana Marcinkevica in the quarterfinals.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Nigina Abduraimova (Uzb) bt Ekaterina Reyngold (Rus) 7-5, 1-6, 7-5; Anastasia Tikhonova (Rus) bt Karman Kaur Thandi 3-6, 6-1, 6-2; Eri Shimizu (Jpn) bt Irina Khromacheva (Rus) 6-1, 6-4; Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) bt rutuja Bhosale 1-6, 6-4, 6-1; Valeria Savinykh (Rus) bt Zhibek Kulambayeva (Kaz) 6-4, 6-1; Mana Kawamura (Jpn) bt Gozal Ainitdinova (Kaz) 7-6(2), 6-1; Ksenia Zaytseva (Rus) bt Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) 6-4, 2-1 (retired); Joanne Zuger (Sui) bt Ankita Raina 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Ekaterina Makarova & Ekaterina Reyngold (Rus) w/o Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) & Rosalie Van der Hoek (Ned); En Shuo Liang (Tpe) & Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) bt Nigina Abduraimova (Uzb) & Rutuja Bhosale 7-5, 4-6, [11-9]; Erina Hayashi & Saki Imamura (Jpn) bt Soha Sadiq & Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-0, 6-1; Irina Khromacheva & Anastasia Tikhonova (Rus) bt Gozal Ainitdinova (Kaz) & Anastasia Sukhotina (Rus) 6-3, 6-0.