ITF Women’s 25K: Zeel Desai, Ankita Raina crash out of first spherical in Gurugram

India No. 1 Ankita Raina misplaced to compatriot Vaidehi Choudhary in straight units, and Zeel Desai bowed out of a troublesome three-set encounter in opposition to Thailand’s Punnin Kovapitukted within the first spherical of the ITF girls’s $25,000 event held in Gurugram on Wednesday.

Desai opened the day’s play at The Tennis Project’s major present court docket in opposition to Kovapitukted – who received the ITF $15,000 event that came about on the similar venue in February – in a virtually four-hour-long encounter. The Indian got here out of the blocks in stable trend making her early lead final until the ninth sport, and despite the fact that Kovapitukted gained extra management of proceedings in the direction of the tip of the set, she broke serve within the last sport to take the lead.

The momentum swung in Thailand worldwide’s favour as she employed a extra defensive, counterpunching technique to take a 4-0 lead and finally shut out the second set 6-3. Desai was in a position to reset and go right into a 4-1 lead within the third set herself, after which Kovapitukted referred to as the coach for an harm difficulty, inflicting an extended break and one more momentum shift took the match away from the 23-year-old.

After the break, the Thailand worldwide leaned extra closely on her defensive abilities, reducing the tempo of the rallies by occurring the backfoot and making Desai hit via her each single level, typically twice or thrice on the identical level.

The Indian was finally unable to interrupt down her opponent’s sport, who started using defensive lobs to take time away from her, forcing the set right into a tiebreak and finally dropping the match 6-4, 3-6, (2) 6-7.

Zeel Desai bowed out of a troublesome three-set encounter in opposition to Thailand’s Punnin Kovapitukted.

Elsewhere, Raina, taking part in her first singles match in Indian situations in over two years, was ousted by Chaudhari (7) 6-7, 3-6. After a nervy, hard-fought first set went the gap, the Asian Games bronze medallist couldn’t make the most of two set-point alternatives within the tiebreaker earlier than dropping three factors in a row and dropping the opener. Chaudhari – who was the runner-up at The Tennis Project again in February – took management of proceedings from there and rounded out the match.

Kovapitukted was not the one participant on Wednesday to face bodily points. With temperatures in Gurugram rising to over 35 levels, three totally different gamers have been compelled to retire below the solar, together with second seed Peangtarn Plipuech, making manner for India’s Vineetha Mummadi within the second spherical.

In the opposite major draw matches, high seed Diana Marcinkevica blew previous lately topped Khelo India Youth Games champion Akanksha Nitture 6-0, 6-4, whereas India’s Sowjanya Bavisetti rallied from a first-set deficit to defeat Russia’s Elena Pridankina 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-