The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Shruti shocks Julia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 06, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Shruti shocks Julia

MUMBAI, APRIL 5. Indian wild card entrant Shruti Dhawan shocked fourth seeded Russian Julia Vorobieva, globally ranked 396 places above her, in the singles first round of the ITF women's tennis tournament here on Tuesday.

Shruti, who was ranked 771 going into the event, beat her rival, with a world ranking of 375, in three gruelling sets 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) taking the last set tie-break without dropping a point, to storm into round two.

Shruti would take on Thai girl Thassha Vitayaviroj, who defeated India's Kashmira Patel in three sets, in the next round.

Joining Shruti in the same stage of the draw were two other Indian wild cards Isha Lakhani and Krushmi Chedda, both of who got past higher ranked rivals.

Isha, along with Shruti a product Practennis, which is hosting the championship, dominated Australia's Cassandra Barr to carve out a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Isha next takes on take on top seed Chan Chin-Wei of Chinese Taipei, who put out another Indian wild card Megha Vakharia 6-4, 6-2 in another first round encounter, in the second round.

Delhi-based Krushmi advanced into the second round after her opponent Julia Dziedzic of Australia retired due to medical reasons when the Indian led 4-1 in the first set.

But another Indian who got a direct entry into the main draw of 32 because of her ranking, Sai Jayalakshmy, bowed out after losing a gruelling three-setter against second-seed Montinee Tangphong of Thailand. She lost to Thangpong, ranked 182 places above her, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 after the two had battled in hot conditions for two hours and 15 minutes.

The results (first round): Chi-Wei Chan (Tpe) bt Megha Vakharia (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Natsumi Hamamura (Jpn) bt Nudnida Luangnam (Tha) 7-5, 7-5; Shruti Dhawan (Ind) bt Julia Vorobieva (Rus) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-0); Isha Lakhani (Ind) bt Cassandra Barr (Aus) 6-3, 6-3; Montinee Tangphong (Tha) bt Sai Jayalakshmy (Ind) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Thassha Vityaviroj (Tha) bt Karishma Patel (Ind) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Punam Reddy (Ind) bt Archana Venkataraman (Ind) 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6); Krushmi Chheda (Ind) bt Julia Dziedzic (Aus) 4-1, retd.; Kavita Krishnamurthy (Can) bt Adriana Szili (Aus) 4-0, (concd.); Mihaela Buzarnescu (Rom) bt Tara Iyer (Ind) 6-4, 6-3. — PTI

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