Katherine beat Nidhi, move into ITF Women's

As the scoreline suggests, Katherine was too good for her Indian opponent displaying an array of fine serves and groundstrokes with power and precision.

In a marathon battle, eighth seed Shweta Rana got the better of Bhuvana Kalva 7-5, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4) in a contest, lasting over three hours.

Shewta won got a break in the seventh game in the first set to lead 4-3 but Bhuvana broke back for a 4-all scoreline.

At 5-5 Shewta broke her opponent's serve and held on to win the first set 7-5.

The 2nd and 3rd third sets could have gone either way Shweta held her nerves in the deciding tie-breakers to settle the issue.

Meanwhile, third seed Rishika Sunkara defeated Victoria Chehal quite easily 6-0 6-0 and seventh seed Prarthana Thombare made short work of Aranxta Andrady 6-1 6-1.

Reigning hard court national champion Prerna Bhambri, seeded fifth, beat Shreya Pasricha 6-4 6-2.

Results, Round One (Indians unless specified):

Rushmi Chakravorty b Treta Bhattacharya 6-4, 6-3; Rishika Sunara b Victoria Chehal 6-0, 6-0; Prarthana Thombare b Aranxta Andrady 6-1, 6-1; Katherine IP b Nidhi Chilumula 6-0, 6-1; Prerna Bhambri b Shreya Pasricha 6-4, 6-2; Shewta Rana b Bhuvana Kalva 7-5, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4); Manya Nagpal b Megha Sherawat 6-2, 6-0; Spurthi Shivalingaiah bt Nikita Deshmukh 6-0, 6-0.