Local girl Sanchana Paul created an upset when she knocked out third seed Nidhi Chilumula in the first round matches of the KSN Sports Foundation-sponsored Chennai ITF Women's Futures Tennis championships at the Madras Gymkhana club courts, here today.
Nidhi started in roaring form to swamp a sluggish Sanchana 6-2 in the first set but could not keep up the momentum in the second set where Sanchana overwhelmed her 6-0.
In the decider, Sanchana broke Nidhi in the very first game and led 3-2. Nidhi broke her opponent and levelled the score three-all but Sanchana maintained her composure to break her serve in the crucial ninth game and win the match 6-4 with a glorious winner on her first match point.
Results: Sansitha Nandakumar (Ind) beat Zainab Ali Sajjad (Ind) 6-3,6-3.
Prarthana G Thombare (Ind) [4] beat Victoria Chehal (Ind) 6-0,6-1.
Anjana Kompally (Ind) beat Nithya Raj Babu Raj (Ind) 6-3,7-5.
Eetee Maheta (Ind) [8] beat Neharika Rama (Ind) 2-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Sharon Sanchana Paul (Ind) beat Nidhi Chilumula (Ind) [3] 2-6,6-0,6-4.
Natasha Palha (Ind) [6] beat Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (Ind) 6-2,7-5.
Doubles first round matches:
Varunya Chandrashekar (Ind)/Smriti Joon (Ind) beat Mahitha Dadi Reddy(Ind)/Likitha Shetty (Ind) 2-6,6-4,10-8.
Nandini Gupta (Ind)/Neharika Rama (Ind) beat Disha Satish Agarwal (Ind)/Nupur Umashankar (Ind) W.O.
Victoria Chehal (Ind)/Ann-Christin Nilsson (Ger) beat Nithya Raj Babu Raj (Ind)/Sarah Pang (Sin) 6-1 6-4.
Kyra Shroff (Ind)/Angelique Svinos (Aus) Beat Barbara Bonic (Srb)/Xi-Yao Wang (Chn) 6-4 1-6 12-10.
