Naik, Raina advance in Asian Junior Championships

NEW DELHI - Indian wildcard Adnya Naik knocked out national champion Ratnika Batra 6-3, 6-1 to storm into the girls’ second round of the Asian Closed Junior Tennis Championships in a searing DLTA complex here Sunday.

Naik, 18, served big and dominated the rallies with her solid groundstrokes to close the match in little over an hour. She now plays 16th-seeded Thai Tanaporn Thongsing who outclassed India’s Smiti Joon 6-0, 6-2.

India’s Nova Patel overcame mid-match jitters to beat compatriot Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 at court two, one of the two courts from the 14 here to have an electronic scoreboard. Patel is now up against top seeded Japanese Eri Hozumi.

The national grasscourt champion and 14th seed Ankita Raina played an attacking game to send compatriot Megha Sehrawat packing 6-3, 6-1. Raina was broken back by Sehrawat in the first set for 3-3 but she soon regained her rhythm for a decisive break at 4-3 to serve out. The second set was completed in a jiffy with Raina in complete charge.

Raina now plays Pakistan’s Usha Suhail who swept aside India’s Namita Bal 6-1, 6-2.

The top four seeds here have got a first round bye. The tournament is the test event for the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games here.

Other results:

Lin Zhu(CHN, 5) bt Zainab Ali Sajjad (IND) 6-2, 6-3; Miho Kowase(JPN) bt Kanika Vaidya (IND) 7-6(5), 6-3; Sharmada Ballu (IND) bt Sanae Ota (JPN) 6-3, 6-2; Nao Hibino(JPN) bt Nidhi Chilumula (IND) 6-1, 6-0; Anushka Bhargava (IND) bt Rajbir Kaur(IND)6-2, 6-1; Zhaoxuan Yang (CHN, 11) bt Ikttesh Chahal (IND) 6-0, 6-0; Li-Yun “Stefanie” Tan (SIN, 13) bt Amrita Mukherjee (IND) 6-1, 6-0; Rishika Sunkara (IND, 7) bt Vasundara Raju (IND) 6-0, 6-0; Prarthana G. Thombare (IND) bt Shreya Pasricha (IND) 7-5, 6-2, Aishwarya Agrawal bt Parminder Kaur 6-0, 6-0; Bhuvana Kalva (IND) bt Sanya Madan (IND) 6-1, 6-0; Netalla Khaniejo (IND) bt Preethi Ujjini (IND) 6-2, 6-2; Sabina Sharapova (UZB, bt Rehnuma Syedah (IND) 6-0, 6-0; Abhilasha Ahuja (IND) bt Rimpledeep Kaur Batth (IND) 6-1, 5-7, 6-4; Napatsakorn Sankaew (THAI) bt Tarrannum Handa (IND) 6-2, 6-1; Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy bt R. Vijayalakshmi 6-1, 6-0.