Tennis: Ankita Raina reaches Solapur semis, India’s challenge at Aus Open wildcard playoff ends

India No 1 Ankita Raina, who was the sole Indian to reach the quarter-finals of the $25K ITF event in Solapur, Maharashtra, reached the last four after a battling win. She reached the doubles final as well with partner Ulrikke Eikeri.

However, the Indian challenge at the Asia-Oceania Australian Open wild card play-off came to an end on Friday with Sasi Kumar Mukund’s quarter-final loss in Zhuhai, China. The seventh seed went down 4-6, 3-6 to Yun-Seong Chung of Korea.

He was the last Indian in the draw after Ramkumar Ramanathan lost in both singles and doubles on Thursday. Seeded third, Ramkumar was beaten 6-3, 6-0 by Ze Zhang of China in his opener in the singles. In the doubles quarter-finals, he and partner Arjun Kadhe went down in a close super tie-break. After a bye in the first round, they lost 6-3, 3-6, 13-11.

At Solapur, Raina fought back from a set down to beat Egypt’s Sandra Samir 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the singles quarter-finals. She was the only Indian in last eight, beating compatriot Riya Bhatia 6-3, 6-4. Among the other Indians, Vaidehi Chaudhari lost to Naiktha Bains of Britain 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1 while Jennifer Luikham was beaten by Yuan Yue of China 4-6, 4-6.

In the doubles, Raina and Eikeri notched a solid 2-6, 6-0, 10-6 win over Sandra Samir and Ekaterina Yashina. In the other semi-final, Rutuja Bhosale and partner Emily Webley-Smith went down in the semi-finals to Berfu Cengiz and Despina Papamichail 2-6, 2-6.

At the $15K ITF event in Nonthaburi, Thailand, SD Prajwal Dev and Adil Kalyanpur reached the doubles final, beating Ti Chen and Ruixuan Wang 6-2, 6-2.

In singles, Rishab Agarwal went down to Dominik Palan 3-6, 3-6 in the quarter-finals. He had beaten Kim Cheong-Eui of Korea 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the last eight. Palan had beaten Prajwal Dev in the earlier round.

At the $15K ITF event in Cancun, Mexico, Siddhant Banthia reached the singles quarter-final beating Tomas Lipovsek Puches 7-6(3), 6-2. In the doubles, Banthia and partner Shintaro Mochizuki reached the semis with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Puches and Manuel Barros.