Baluu eliminates Palah

Unseeded Sharmadaa Baluu caused a major upset at the Zuari Garden City Open ITF women's tennis tournament when she ousted Delhi ITF finalist and third seed Natasha Palah 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2, here Tuesday.

Local girl Baluu, after losing the first set via the tie-breaker, was down 0-4 in the second. A line call ignited a spark as she raised the level of her game, winning six straight games to claim the second set.

The third set did not see Baluu let off either. Despite trading serves with Pallah early in the set, Baluu ran away to a 5-2 lead and served out for the match that lasted all of three hours.

That match put to shade the other seeds progressing. Top seed Prarthana Thombare was an easy winner over Mahita Dadi Reddy, No 5 Ching-Wen Hsu breezed past Pakistani National Ushna Suhail, No 6 Shweta Rana was not troubled by another local girl, 16-year-old Sansriti Ranjan.

In doubles play, top seeds Fatma Al Nabhani and Rishika Sunkara rallied from a set down to defeat the Indo-Pak pair of Karman Kaur Thandi and Ushna Suhail to enter the quarter-finals.

Results:

Singles (First round, Prefix denotes seeding): Sharmadaa Baluu bt 3-Natasha Palah 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2; 5-Ching-Wen Hsu (Tpe) bt Ushna Suhail (Pak) 6-3, 6-1; 1-Prarthana Thombare bt Mahita Dadi Reddy 6-2, 6-2; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Bhuvana Kalva 6-1, 6-1; Sri Vaishnavi Pedi Reddy bt Riya Bhatia 7-6 (6), 6-3; Karman Kaur Thandi bt Sharon Sanchana Paul 6-1, 6-3; Eetee Maheta bt Moulika Ram 6-1, 7-5, 6-Shweta Rana bt Sansriti Ranjan 6-0, 6-2; Rutuja Bhosle bt Abbie Meyers (Aus) 7-5, 6-3.

Doubles (Pre-quarters): Vaniya Dangwal / Amrita Mukherjee bt Mahita Dadi Reddy / Sharon Sanchana Paul 7-5, 6-0; Snehadevi S Reddy / Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal bt Chun-Yan He (Chn) / Adnya Naik (Ind) 7-6 (6), 6-1; 1-Fatma Al Nabhani (Oma) / Rishika Sunkara (Ind) bt Ushna Suhail (Pak) / Karman Kaur Thnadi (Ind) 6-7 (5), 6-0, 10-7.