Ankita, Shrivalli enter second round in Georgia

Ankita Raina beat her doubles partner Anastasia Tikhonova 7-6(2), 6-4 in the first round of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Lopota, Georgia, on Wednesday.

It was a good day for Indians, as Shrivalli Bhamidipaty also made it to the second round of singles, while Rutuja Bhosale made it to the semifinals of doubles with Paige Hourigan of New Zealand.

Meanwhile, qualifier Guy Den Ouden of the Netherlands beat the eighth seeded Sumit Nagal 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of the €91,250 Challenger tennis tournament in Prague, Czech Republic.

The results: €91,250 Challenger, Francavilla al Mare, Italy: Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Siddhant Banthia & Alexander Donski (Bul) bt Mats Hermans (Ned) & Tiago Pereira (Por) 6-1, 3-6, [10-4].

€91,250 Challenger, Prague, Czech Republic: Singles (first round): Guy Den Ouden (Ned) bt Sumit Nagal 6-1, 6-1.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Milos Karol (Svk) & Neil Oberleitner (Aut) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth & Miguel Reyes-Varela (Mex) 6-4, 7-6(6). Marcelo Demoliner (Bra) & David Pel (Ned) bt Niki Poonacha & Marcelo Zormann (Bra) 6-4, 6-4.

$30,000 ITF men, Baotou, China: Singles (first round): S Mukund bt Yuichiro Inui (Jpn) 6-0 retired.

$15,000 ITF men, Tehran, Iran: Singles (first round): Karan Singh bt Juan Jose Bianchi (Ven) 6-3, 7-6(5); Moein Moazam (Iri) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 1-0 (retired); Prajwal Dev bt Atharva Sharma 6-1, 6-2; Artem Bogomolov bt Dev Javia 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ivan Denisov & Kabir Hans bt Juan Bianchi & Brandon Peez (Ven) 6-4, 6-4; Dev Javia & Karan Singh bt Parsa Ashjari & Sina Moghimi (Iri) 6-7(5), 6-2, [10-6]; Fadi Bidani (Lbn) & Dmitry Dolzhenkov bt Matteo Covato (Ita) & Maan Kesharwani 7-6(7), 3-6, [10-5].

$40,000 ITF women, Lopota, Georgia: Singles (first round): Ankita Raina bt Anastasia Tikhonova 7-6(2), 6-4; Shrivalli Bhamidipaty bt Ksenia Zaytseva 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Varvara Panshina & Daria Zelinskaya bt Ankita Raina & Anastasia Tikhonova 2-6, 6-4, [10-7]; Rutuja Bhosale & Paige Hourigan (Nzl) bt Rinko Matsuda (Jpn) & Nina Rudukova 7-5, 6-1.

$30,000 ITF women, Goyang, Korea: Singles (first round): Lin Zhu (Chn) bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-2, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia: Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Aaddi Gupta & Aurora Urso (Ita) bt Joody Elkady (Egy) & Ksenia Smirnova 2-6, 6-3, [10-6].