The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Rushmi gets top billing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 23, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Rushmi gets top billing

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: National champion Rushmi Chakravarthi heads a list of talented and determined Indian girls who will try to make a meaningful progress in the first tournament of the season, the $10,000 ITF women's tennis event to be played at the DLTA Complex here from Monday.

With six of the eight seeds being Indian, it should not be a surprise if one of the Indian girls go on to win the title. Actually, five of them, Rushmi, Ankita Bhambri, Isha Lakhani, Megha Vakharia, Sai Jayalakshmy have won many titles between them at this level, and the eighth-seeded Paarul Goswami alone will be looking for her maiden title.

However, it will not be easy for any of them because of the presence of a clutch of talented players who have been playing the ITF junior tournaments in the country for the past three weeks.

Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan could be a tricky first round opponent for Rushmi as she has been doing very well in the last fortnight in Delhi and Kolkata, apart from having enhanced her reputation by reaching the semifinals of the last Asian championship in Tashkent. Overall, it should be a week of quality performance that should help the Indian girls take a step forward in the right direction

The seedings: 1. Rushmi Chakravarthi, 2. Ankita Bhambri, 3. Isha Lakhani, 4. Nudnida Luangnam (Tha), 5. Nicole Clerico (Ita), 6. Megha Vakharia, 7. Sai Jayalakshmy and 8. Paarul Goswami.

The results (qualifying event): Second and final round: Wei-Ping Lee (Sin) bt Oormila Ram 6-4, 6-3; Penporn Chantawannop (Tha) bt Vandana Murali 6-3, 1-6, 6-3; Madura Ranganathan bt Pallavi Sharma 6-0, 6-1; Liza Pereira bt Sandri Gangothri 6-4, 6-2; Varsha Shivshankar bt Renuka Keswani 6-1, 6-2; Anupama Rajur bt Harpreet Chandi (GBR) 6-3, 7-6(4); Shweta Solanki bt Natalia Semenenko (Rus) 6-2, 7-5; Nadine Fahoum (Isr) bt Chirashanthi Rajur 6-3, 6-2.

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