The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Meghha overcomes Isha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 21, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Meghha overcomes Isha

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Meghha Vakaria played a patient game to overcome second seed Isha Lakhani 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Jubilant Organosys $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

In a battle of left-handers, who had enjoyed a matching stature earlier in their career and been part of the Indian Fed Cup team, it was Meghha's ability to stay in the points that proved decisive.

Once she won the first set, Meghha relaxed a bit even as Isha tightened her game to wrap up the second with ease. It was Isha who led 4-3 in the decider, but Meghha reeled off the next three games to set up a second round clash with Lavinia Tananta of Indonesia.

Tara Iyer advances

In another lively encounter, Tara Iyer hung on to beat the challenge of Pichittra Thongdach of Thailand, who retired with a knee injury when the Indian girl was leading 3-2, 40-0 in the third set.

The 17-year-old Indian will have the unenviable task of matching wits with top seed Ankita Bhambri, who outplayed Li Shan-Shan of China.

Rushmi Chakravarthi, Poojashree Venkatesh, Sanaa Bhambri and Shalini Sahoo were the other Indians who advanced.

The results:

Singles (first round): Ankita Bhambri bt Li Shan-Shan (Chn) 6-3, 6-1; Tara Iyer bt Pichittra Thongdach (Tha) 5-7, 7-6(4), 3-2 (retd); Poojashree Venkatesh bt Archana Venkataraman 6-2, 6-3; Ji Chun-Mei (Chn) bt Oormila Ram 6-1, 6-2; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Krushmi Chheda 6-1, 6-0; Sanaa Bhambri bt Asha Nandakumar 6-4, 6-1; Shalini Sahoo bt Sandri Gangothri 6-2, 6-0; Meghha Vakaria bt Isha Lakhani 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Po-Kuen Lam (HK)/Sagarika Phadke bt Asha Nandakumar/Varsha Shivshankar 6-3, 6-4; Krushmi Chheda/Parul Goswami bt Vishika Chhetri/Sandri Gangothri 6-4, 7-6(5).

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