Snehadevi progresses in Gulbarga ITF tennis

Third seed Snehadevi Reddy had to sweat it out against qualifier Preethi Ujjini before prevailing 7-5, 6-1 to move into the women's singles second round of the Gulbarga ITF $10,000 tennis tournament here on Monday.

The match lasted an hour and 54 minutes with Ujjini testing the third seed in the first set. Snehadevi was also guilty of serving too many double faults, at a time when up 40-love and serving four double faults to hand the game to her opponent.

However, Snehadevi came into her own and Preethi, who was aggressive all through, seemed to be losing focus and the third seed wrapped up the second set quickly.

In an upset, qualifier Soha Sadiq rallied from a set down to account for Akshara Iska, claiming a spot in the second round with a 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3 verdict.

The qualifier, who trains at the Mahesh Bhupathi academy, matched her rival. Losing the first set via the tie-breaker saw her become more determined as she swamped her opponent to claim the next two sets.

Soma next runs into Snehadevi in the Round of 16.

No.8 seed Eetee Maheta breezed past wildcard entrant Shivani Manjanna with an identical 6-1, 6-1.

In another first round encounter, World No.745 Riya Bhatia breezed past wildcard entrant Moulika Ram 6-4, 6-2.

In doubles, fourth seeded pair of Druthi Tatachar Venugopal and Kamran Kaur Thandi made short work of the Indo-Chinese pair of Varunya Chandrashekar and Chun-Yan He, winning 6-0, 6-3.

The Thai pair of Tamachan Momkoonthod and Plobrung Plippipuech eased past Indian combine of Teertha Iska and Amrita Mukherjee 6-2, 6-1 while in an all-India competition, Aastha Darugude and Vasavi Ganesan bested Sneha Padamata and Moulika Ram 6-3, 2-6, 10-8.