An Indian will enter the Semifinal, as two PreQuarters are an All-Indian affair.
With Indians playing all around the globe in last month these two tournaments came as a big releaf for the Indian women contingent to play in the country and be able to gather some crucial points.
Nine could make the main draw on the basis of their WTA rankings and four were awarded Wild Cards while three made it via the qualifying rounds. A total of sixteen Indians in a draw of thirty two.
Ankita Raina and Karman Thandi were the only seeded Indians in the draw.
All the Indians in the top half of the draw exited in the first round itself. Akanksha Nitture who recently won the Khelo India games Gold medal was given possibly the toughest encounter against Top seed Diana from Latvia. She was bagled in the first set and showed few glimpses of her skills in second round but lost that 4-6.
Wild Card Ananyaa Bhargava and Vanshika Choudhary lost their matches in straight sets while Smriti Bhasin the other WC entry showed some intent before losing the match in three sets against much higher ranked Japanese Saki Imamura
Nidhi who made it past the qualifying rounds couldn’t cross the first round hurdle as she lost to Anna in straight sets 4-6,0-6
Karman Thandi who is on a comeback survived a scare against compatriot Sahaja as she defeated her in three competitive sets.
Similarly Sowjanya was made to work hard for her win as she defeated the qualifier in three sets.
Mihika Yadav the fourth wild card would rue her chances as she gifted the match to Humera after being in commanding position.
Biggest surprise came from Vaidehi who had shown good form in the earlier futures tournaments in the country, up against the top ranked Indian Ankita Raina she looked determined and after winning the first one in tie break she broke Ankita serve in second set and closed the match 7-6,6-3
Shrivalli made quick work of qualifier Kundali as she won 6-2,6-1
Zeel gave her all but eventually landed on the wrong side. She lost to Punnin 6-4,3-6,6-7
Vineetha would consider herself lucky as the second seed decided to pull out of the match midway while it was one set all.
Three seeds have tumbled in the first round itself and it remains to be seen how they fair in the second round
Pre-Quarterfinals matches (Indian)
- Karman (8) 🇮🇳 vs Sowjanya 🇮🇳
- Humera 🇮🇳 vs Vaidehi 🇮🇳
- Shrivalli 🇮🇳 v Misaki (7) 🇯🇵
- Vineetha 🇮🇳 v Punnin 🇹🇭
