The Hindu : Sai loses in final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Sai loses in final

NEW DELHI OCT. 27. Top-seeded Sai Jayalakshmy lost in the final of the $10,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament in Lagos, Nigeria, last week.

The 553rd-ranked Sai lost 4-6, 4-6 to the 1030th-ranked Heidi El Tabakh of Egypt, after beating Noha Mohsen of Egypt 6-3, 6-0 in the semifinals. Sai had beaten Lizaan Du Plessis of South Africa 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 and Nigerian girls Akintunde Kuburat 6-0, 6-0 and Alice Izomar 6-2, 6-1 earlier.

Third-seeded Liza Pereira lost in the quarterfinals to Noha Mohsen 1-6, 4-6. Qualifier Dalia-Diana Vranceanu of Germany retired with Liza leading 6-0 in the pre-quarterfinals. Liza beat Fatima Ali Abinu of Nigeria 6-3, 6-2 in the first round.

The third Indian, Nandini Perumal lost 3-6, 1-6 to second-seeded Michelle Snyman of South Africa in the pre-quarterfinals after beating lucky-loser Ronke Akianbade of Nigeria 6-2, 6-0.

In doubles, top-seeded Sai and Liza lost to Heidi El Tabakh and Yomna Farid 6-2, 2-6, 2-6, while Nandini and Anna Miller of Austria lost 3-6, 4-6 to second-seeded Rebecca Dandeniya of Britain and Michelle Snyman.

Punna Vishal qualifies: Second-seeded Punna Vishal qualified for the main draw with a 7-6 (7-0), 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-3) victory over Constantin Minar of Germany in the second $10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament in Colombo on Monday.

Other results (main draw): Ajay Ramaswami bt Rajiv Rapakse (SL) 6-0, 6-0; Manoj Mahadevan lost to 8-Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) 3-6, 2-6.

Doubles (first round): Jaco Mathew/Yew-Ming Si (Mal) bt Franklyn Emmanuel/Oshada Wijemanne (SL) 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.

Qualifying: Shivang Mishra/Gurmehar Singh bt Joseph Huber (Aut)/Olivier le Jeune (Fra) 6-2, 6-0; Somdev Dev Varman/Koji Motomura bt Chaturanga Vidanaarachchi/Dinusha Wijesuriya (SL) 6-1, 6-3.

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