The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Iroda too good for Isha Lakhani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 07, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Iroda too good for Isha Lakhani

Kamesh Srinivasan

TASHKENT: Iroda Tulyaganova outplayed Isha Lakhani 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Asian tennis championship here on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old, eighth-seeded Iroda showed the game that had taken her thus far. Injuries may have crippled her progress thereafter as she won one match last year, but the Uzbek seemed to be getting everything back as she hammered winners past a hapless Isha.

To Isha's defence it may be noted that the Mumbai girl was struggling with her vision as she changed to spectacles because of some problem with her contact lens before the start of the match. After slipping to 0-5 when she could hardly put racquet to ball, Isha pulled off two face saving games.

There was another setback for the Indian camp, as Sunil Kumar could not reach here from Delhi for his first round match this morning, as his flight got cancelled.

In doubles, all the Indians moved into the quarterfinals.

The results (first round):

Men: Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt Minh Quan Do (Vie) 6-3, 6-4; Oh-Hee Kwon (Kor) bt Oleg Ogorodov (Uzb) 7-6 (5), 6-2; Goichi Motomura (Jpn) bt Shahab Hassani Nafez (Iri) 6-1, 6-2; Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) bt Toshiaki Sakai (Jpn) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles: Rohan Bopanna/ Alexey Kedriouk bt Xiao Peng Lai/ Hiu Tung Yu 6-2, 6-2; Vijay Kannan/ Karan Rastogi bt Minh Quan Do/ Quang Huy Ngo 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Women: Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzb) bt Isha Lakhani 6-2, 6-3; Ivanna Israilova (Uzb) bt Erika Takao (Jpn) 6-4, 6-4.

Doubles: Ankita Bhambri/ Sanaa Bhambri bt Vlada Ekshibarova/ Nigora Sirojiddinova 6-1, 6-4; Isha Lakhani/ Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Ivanna Israilova/ Akgul Amanmuradova 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.

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