Tennis: All four Indians in fray lose opening qualifying matches at WTA Mumbai Open

It was a disappointing day for India at the WTA Mumbai Open on Saturday as Riya Bhatia, Nidhi Chilumula, Natasha Palha and Pranjala Yadlapalli all went down without offering much of a fight in their first qualifying match.

The 20-year-old Bhatia, ranked 545th in the world, made a promising start against 27-year-old Alize Lim (ranked 308th) of France. With an early break, the Indian seized a 3-0 lead in the first set. However, she completely fizzled out after that, losing the next 12 games to succumb to a 3-6, 0-6 defeat.

On the adjacent court, 23-year-old Nidhi Chilumula (ranked 855th) came a cropper against Russian 26-year-old Anna Morgina (ranked 337th) and suffered a 1-6, 3-6 defeat.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Natasha Palha (ranked 783rd) won just a solitary game against Israel’s 23-year-old Deniz Khazaniuk (rank 274th) before losing 1-6, 0-6, while 18-year-old Pranjala Yadlapalli did not get on the scoreboard losing 0-6, 0-6 to 24-year-old Romanian top-seed Ana Bogdan (rank 111th).

Naiktha Bains, an Australian of Indian origin, provided some cheer for the local tennis fans at the Cricket Club of India’s tennis courts. The 19-year-old showed plenty of variety in her play to sideline Cornelia Lister of Sweden in straight games. The 374th-ranked player dropped just two games en route to a 6-2, 6-0 win against the 437th ranked Cornelia with plenty to spare.

In the most interesting match of the day, Ling Zhang of Hong Kong recovered from losing the first set to overcome Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. Former world No 2 Vera Zvonareva had to pull out from the event because of an injury sustained in the Hua Hin Challenger event.