Top seeds advance in next round in ITF women's event

Top seeds Prarthana Thombare and Natasha Palha recorded comfortable victories on the second day of the ITF Women's Futures tennis tournament at TNTA courts here today.
Top seed Prarthana thrashed Victoria Chehal 6-1, 6-2 while second seed Natasha beat another Indian Bhavani Balakumar 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the next round.
Sharrmadaa Balu, a talented player from Bangalore and seeded fifth, had to huff and puff before defeating compatriot Riya Bhatia.
Sharrmadaa, who possesses a good serve, ran over Riya in the first set to win 6-1. In the second, Riya clawed her way back with a 6-4 win.
Sharrmadaa once again took charge of the third set leading 4-0 before once again committing a series of double faults and an unforced error, allowing Riya to narrow the gap. At 5-4, Sharrmadaa finally forced an error on her opponent to win the set 6-4 and the match.

On the adjacent court, Swetha Sree Hari continued her strong display and outlasted Jeni Patel in three sets. In the third set, Swetha played confidently to notch up an early lead and held on to it to win 6-2 and the match.

In the third longest match of the day, the determined Chinese Xi-Yao Wang got the better of Yui Saikai of Japan in a well fought match.
Results: Singles
Prarthana G ThombarE (IND) [1] bt Victoria Chehal (IND) 6-1, 6-2; Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND) bt Damini Sharma (IND) 6-3, 6-2; Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) bt Nithya Raj Babu Raj (IND) 7-5, 6-1; Sharrmadaa Baluu (IND) [5] bt Riya Bhatia (IND) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) [4] bt Yui Saikai (JPN) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Efriliya HERLINA (INA) bt Manya Nagpal (IND) 7-5, 6-2; Swetha Sree Hari (IND) bt Jeni Patel (IND) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2; Natasha Palha (IND) [2] bt Bhavani Balakumar (IND) 6-3, 6-2; Rishika Sunkara (IND) [3] bt Arthi Muniyan (IND) 6-1, 6-2.