India's Somdev Devvarman did not survive the opening qualifying round of the combined ATP WTA Western & Southern Financial Group Masters while Sania Mirza managed to barely survive.
Devvarman was beaten by Turkey's Marsel Ilhan 6-4, 7-6 on Saturday, taking his hardcourt record this summer to 3-4. Meanwhile, Mirza sneaked out a 7-6, 2-6, 7-6 win over American Vania King.
King received what she thought was a poor line call at 5-5 in the deciding tie-break to go down 5-6, giving the Indian a matchpoint. After Mirza closed out the win, King refused to shake hands with the chair umpire.
Sania will take on American wild card Alexa Glatch for a place in the main draw of the event, who she leads 2-0 in career head-to-head. The Indian has struggled in singles in the last couple of months after a successful first half of 2011 which saw her ranking leapfrog from no. 160 to no. 63. She is currently ranked 65th in the latest rankings.
Also, India's Karan Rastogi won the $15,000 ITF Futures in Kazakhstan with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Mohamed Safwat. The Indian, currently ranked no. 355, was playing only his third event since returning from injury in April. The lack of play saw his ranking from from his peak of no. 284 in February.
This was 24 year old Rastogi's second ITF title of the year and should see him move back into the top 330 in the world rankings. The Indian will now move to Uzbekistan for the $50,000 ATP Challenger event which starts on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment