ITF women’s tennis: Rina Saigo beats Shrivalli Bhamidipaty

Shrivalli Bhamidipaty missed set points in both the sets and got beaten 7-6(8), 7-6(2) by Rina Saigo of Japan in the first round of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club on Wednesday.

Shrivalli did well to fight back from being down 4-5 in the first set to force the tie-break, but missed a set point at 6-5.

In the second set, Shrivalli led 5-3 and missed a set point on her serve in the tenth game, before the Japanese pulled through 7-2 in the eventual tie-break.

Sahaja Yamalapalli got off to a flying start, winning the first set 6-1, but could not stop the seventh seed Dejana Radanovic of Serbia from dictating terms thereafter. The Serb led 4-1 in the second set and 5-0 in the third, in racing to victory.

Qualifier Vaidehi Chaudhari also led 5-4 in the first set before losing 5-7, and 3-2 in the second before being beaten 6-3, by Saki Imamura of Japan.

With Vaishnavi Adkar and Zeel Desai also bowing out in the first round, none of the eight Indian players were left to fight in the pre-quarterfinals.