Sahaja Yamalapalli enters pre-quarterfinals at ITF women’s tennis tournament

Sahaja Yamalapalli overcame a slow start to beat Vaidehi Chaudhari 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on the clay courts of the MSLTA Academy on Wednesday.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Sahaja will play wild card entrant Sonal Patil. Sahaja made the doubles quarterfinal also, in partnership with Miriana Tona of Italy.

National champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty was beaten in three sets by qualifier Anastasia Zolotareva, while Vaishnavi Adkar fell to fellow qualifier Ikumi Yamazaki in three sets.

The champion of the last tournament in Gurugram, third seed Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania was beaten 7-5, 6-2 by Mei Yamaguchi of Japan. The fourth seed Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia was also beaten by another Japanese, Ayumi Koshishi, 6-4, 7-6(6).