Rishika, Shweta enter Round 2 of Aurangabad tennis

Third seeded Rishika Sunkara, fifth seeded Shweta Rana and eighth seeded Nidhi Chilumula made it to the second round of the $10,000 MSLTA ITF women's tennis championships here Monday.

World No.551 Sunkara outplayed Vaniya Dangwal 6-1, 6-4 while World No.558 Shweta was stretched by wildcard Teertha Iska before she won 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 in a two hour 10 minute match.

Nidhi also faced a rough time before overcoming Eetee Maheta 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 to make it to the last 16.

Rutuja Bhosale and Natasha Palha registered an upset as they saved three matchpoints to beat fourth seeds Nidhi and Prerna Bhambri 1-6, 6-3, 13-11 to enter the quarterfinals of the doubles event.

First round results:

Women's singles: Damini Sharma bt Sahan Shetty 6-3, 6-3; Akshara Iska bt Vaibhavi Trivedi 6-1, 6-4; Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Riya Bhatia 6-3, 6-2; 5-Shweta Rana bt Teertha Iska 4-6, 6-1, 6-0; 8-Nidhi Chilumula bt Eetee Maheta 5-7, 6-2, 6-0; Bhuvana Kalva bt Mahrukh Kokni 6-2, 6-0; 3-Rishika Sunkara bt Vaniya Dangwal 6-1, 6-4; Sanya Madan bt Srishti Slaria 6-1, 6-2.

Women's doubles: 3-Shweta Rana/Rishika Sunkara bt Arantxa Andrady/Sharon Sanchana Paul 6-2, 6-1; Rutuja Bhosale/Natasha Palha bt 4-Nidhi Chhlumula/Prerna Bhambri 1-6, 6-3, 13-11; Eetee Maheta/Anushka Bhargava bt Vaniya Dangwal/Theiviya Selvarajoo 6-4, 6-2; Ankita Raina/Prarthana G. Thombare bt Amreen Naaz and Swetha Nalikala 6-0, 6-0.