By Saumojyoti Singha Choudhury, IANS
Bangalore : Isha Lakhani bowed out of the $600,000 Bangalore Open singles while the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, advanced to the second round of the doubles at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) Tennis Centre Tuesday.
Lakhani, ranked 357, proved no match for Romania’s Agnes Szatmari who dumped her 6-2, 6-2 in one hour 32 minutes.
The Indian challenge in the singles came to an end with Lakhani’s exit. Shikha Uberoi, also a wildcard, had lost Monday while US-based Indian Sunitha Rao failed to make the cut, losing in the qualifiers.
Lakhani was unable to keep her first serve in and made quite a few unforced errors. In contrast, Szatmari was content on keeping the ball in play and waited for her opponent to make mistakes.
Pouncing on the 23-year-old Mumbaikar’s weak serve, Szatmari, ranked 271 on the WTA charts, broke her in the first and third games of the opening set which she easily won.
Lakhani met a similar fate in the second set as well as the handful of spectators returned disappointed.
The 21-year-old Romanian had a double break early in the set and that settled the issue. Lakhani had her chances when she pulled one back to make it 3-2.
Lakhani was broken for the third time in the set in the seventh game and then the Romanian served her way into the second round.
The Williams sisters, here as wildcard doubles entry, eliminated Andrea Ehritt-Vanc of Romania and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the first round. They will now meet third-seeded Chinese pair Shuai Peng and Tiantian Sun in the quarter-finals.
Venus and Serena were a little scratchy in the beginning and lost both their opening service games to go down 0-3 in the first set. But they rallied and broke back, first Tanasugarn’s serve in the fourth game and then Ehritt-Vanc’s in the sixth to level the set 3-3.
From then on games went with serve and the set was decided on a tie-breaker which the American pair won 7-5.
As the match progressed, the sisters got better, and Serena, especially, dominated the net.
In the second set, Ehritt-Vanc and Tamasugarn were 1-3 down, as the sisters got a break in the third game. The sisters fired 10 aces in the match to make it one-sided once they overcame the initial resistance.
In the day’s other singles, Olga Savchuk of Ukraine had to dig deep to beat Great Britain’s Katie O’Brien 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, Tzipora Obziler of Israel beat German Angelica Bachman6-2, 6-3, and Croatia’s Sanda Mamic had an easy outing against Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei 6-2, 6-2. Obziler will face third seed Serena Williams in the second round, while Mamic will play top seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.
Russian Anastasia Rodionova, ranked 86th in the world, had to encounter tough resistance from Chinese qualifier Tiantian Sun before winning 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4. She will meet sixth seed Sybille Bammer of Austria in second round.
Day Two Results:
Singles:
Olga Savchuk (UKR) beat Katie O’Brien (GBR) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
Angelika Bachmann (GER) lost to Tzipora Obziler (ISR) 2-6, 3-6
Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) lost to Sanda Mamic (CRO) 2-6, 2-6
Anastasia Rodinova beat Tiantian Sun 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4
Peng Shuai (CHN) beat Anne Kremer (LUX) 6-1, 6-2
Agnes Szatmari (ROU) beat Isha Lakhani (IND) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles:
Serena Williams (US)/Venus Williams (US) beat Andreea Ehrit-Vanc (ROU)/Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) 7-6 (5), 6-4
Chunmei Ji (CHN)/Shengnan Sun (CHN) beat Angelika Bachmann (GER)/Debbrich Feys (BEL) 2-6, 7-5, 10-7