Pune: Sachie Ishizu of Japan and Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand were the two seeds who fell by the wayside as lower-ranked players reveled under the conditions, but Indian wildcard holder Ashwarya Shrivastava made second round exit at the $25,000 NECC-ITF Women’s tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana courts here on Wednesday.
Ashwarya, who is No 663 on the WTA Rankings was sent all over the court by Slovenia’s Tadeja Majeric, who allowed only two games to be taken from her as she won 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour to set up quarterfinal clash with Melis Sezer of Turkey, who knocked out No 5 seed Peangtarn Plipuech in their first meeting on the Tour.
Registering her best performance in $25K tournament, the 18-year-old Sezer seized the initiative in the first set that was stretched to 12 games. Though she lost the second 1-6, the Turkish woman, who has one $10K win this season, rallied in the decider to take it 6-3 before making it to her maiden $25K quarterfinal.
But the biggest upset of the day came on Court No 3 where Chinese Taipei’s Ting-Pei Juan defeated No 2 seed Sachie Ishizu in three sets after having lost the first.
Both players were meeting for the first time on court, but No 516 ranked Juan saved crucial points to live for yet another day. Sachie had taken the first set 6-4 and was on course in the second before Juan found her shots and sent down winners to take the set 7-5. Sachie completely lost her power in the decider, which Juan wrapped up 6-1.
In other action, France’s No 6 seed Celine Cattaneo needed one hour 27 minutes to beat Lu Jia-Xiang of China 6-4, 6-3; and No 4 seed Nicha Lertpitaksinchai defeated Anja Prislan of Slovenia 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) in an hour and 15 minutes.
Cattaneo broke Lu in the seventh game of the first set before taking it 6-4. The two traded first four games in the second before Cattaneo grabbed four games in a row to close out their maiden meeting.
Top seed Nicha won five games in a row before Anja managed to hold her serve. After taking the first set 6-1, Nicha found the going tough as Anja raised her level and sent down some powerful returns to catch the Thai player on the wrong foot.
In the tie-breaker, however, Nicha raced to 3-0 lead and after it was 4-2, she reeled out three straight winners to close the match 7-6 (7-2).
Results:Singles (Second round): 1-Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) bt Natia Gegia (Geo) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3; 4-Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (Tha) bt Anja Prislan (Slo) 6-1, 7-6 (7-2); 6-Celine Cattaneo (Fra) bt Lu Jia-Xiang (Chn) 6-4, 6-3; Melis Sezer (Tur) bt 5-Peangtarn Plipuech (Tha) 7-5, 1-6, 6-3; 3-Tadeja Majeric (Slo) bt Ashwarya Shrivastava (Ind) 6-1, 6-1; Anna Shkudun (Ukr) bt Deniz Khazaniuk (Isr) 6-4, 6-3; Ting-Fei Juan (Tpe) bt 2-Sachie Ishizu (Jpn) 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
