Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) Top seed Ankita Bhambri hardly broke a sweat in her 6-3, 6-0 demolition of qualifier Sagarika Phadke to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament on a hot and humid day at the DLTA complex here Tuesday.
Ankita, who made a second round exit in the last week’s ITF, with her big serve and solid groundstrokes did not allow an erratic Phadke a chance to fightback.

The top seed raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set and was serving for the set in the eighth game only to be broken back. That was the only blip in an otherwise clinical fare by Ankita, who broke Phadke immediately to close the set.

Ankita was flawless in the second set, finishing the match in an hour.

The 22-year-old, however, felt there was scope for improvement.

“I feel I could have played better. There were some errors. I will like to keep them in check when I play next,” said Ankita, who next plays Treta Bhattacharyya.

Ankita’s cousin Prerna Bhambri, however, failed to match up to Swiss Stephanie Theiler, going down 3-6, 3-6.

In the other first round matches, last week’s champion and eighth-seeded Ying Ying Duan of China beat Japanese qualifier Moe Kawatoko 7-5, 6-3 while seventh-seeded Parul Goswami was upset by South Korean Seo-Kyung Kang 3-6, 2-6.

Another Indian Shweta Solanki was defeated by Austrian qualifier Natasha Bredl 4-6, 5-7.