Day 1 Qualifying Rounds.
Chamarthi vs Hibino (6-1, 6-0)
The day started with a 27-year-old local lad taking on no2 seed Japanese. The game started off really well with the first three games taking 30 minutes to complete.
The 199th-ranked Japanese with her experience broke down Chamari’s serve and from there on there was only one-way traffic. Chamarthii lost most of her energy in the first 30 minutes from where she couldn’t win a single game going down 6-1 and 6-0.
Sowjanya Bavisetti vs Okamura (6-4,6-0)
Sowjanya got off to a great start breaking Okamura’s 1st serve of the match. Okamura then fought back strong breaking Bavisetti’s serve and level the game. For a good part of 1st game, Sowjanya looked good with her serve and play but couldn’t match the Japanese losing out 4-6. In the 2nd game, it was totally a one-sided affair where Sowjanya went down 0-6 and eventually the match. Like other Indians, she was good at the start but as the match went by she couldn’t match her opponent’s game.
L.Arunkumar vs Y.Naito ( 4-6, 1-6)
Arun Kumar the 16-year-old local girl from Chennai was given a Qualifying WC along with Chamarthi. She showed a lot of promise with her game style never giving up.
In the 1st game, she was 2-5 down from where she won 2 consecutive to bring it down to 4-5. Arun Kumar even broke down 2 set points in Naito’s serve but couldn’t hold on further eventually losing the game.
She couldn’t continue her usual game in the 2nd set going down 1-6. She is presently ranked 453 in the ITF Junior rankings and has beaten top-ranked opponents multiple times since 2022. This match should give her a lot of confidence and looks bright for India.
Rutuja Bhosale vs E.Liang (6-4,6-2)
The experienced 26-year-old lost to the higher-ranked opponent in straight sets. Like others, she started the 1st game well but in the latter stages lost many crucial points. There were hopes of Rutuja qualifying for the 2nd Qualifying round but too many errors and poor service cost her the match.
Riya Bhatia vs Mikulskyte (6-4, 6-0)
Riya started the game by losing 4 games in a row and was trailing 0-4 then won 3 out of the next 4 games to close the deficit 3-4. Serving for the set Riya had a game point in hand which she lost eventually taking advantage of this the Lithuanian sealed the 1st set.
Had Riya won the game point she would have levelled 5-5 with momentum with her. This is an area where the Indians need to win crucial points when it matters the most. She showed good gameplay with good placements but the game awareness needs to be improved.
All 5 Indians did not possess good serves which the opponents took to their advantage. With this only Karman Kaur Thandi and Ankita Raina with WC made it to the main draws.
Not a good day for the Indians with only two women winning at least 1 game in the 2nd set while the rest of the others did not win a game too.
