Chennai, Oct 31 Fourteen-year-old wild card Jensi Kanabar put up a strong fight against fifth seed Weronika Falkowska of Poland before going down in three sets in the Chennai Open qualifying round here on Saturday.
Four Indians featured in the qualifying draw, with Jensi emerging as the standout performer despite her defeat at the SDAT Tennis Stadium.
After conceding the opening set, Jensi found her rhythm in the second, matching her experienced opponent shot for shot. The young Indian showed considerable composure to eventually convert her sixth set point and level the match.
However, Falkowska steadied her game in the decider and held off two break points at 4-3 before taking control. Jensi, who had raced to a 40-0 lead while serving, was unable to close out the game, allowing the Pole to seal the contest.
Indian wild card Diya Ramesh also put up a good fight against second seed Kyoka Okamura of Japan, but the experienced Japanese player kept her composure to register a straight-set victory.
The other two Indians in qualifying, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Zeel Desai, also bowed out against fourth seed Viktoria Morvayova and third seed Mei Yamaguchi, respectively.
The singles main-draw ceremony was held on Saturday in the presence of Vijay Amritraj, President of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA), with tournament supervisor Sheetal Iyer conducting the draw.
Defending champion and top seed Janice Tjen of Indonesia headlines the 32-player field, while three Indians, Vaishnavi Adkar, Sahaja Yamalapalli and Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi, have been awarded wild cards.
Adkar is the highest-ranked Indian in the draw at world No. 334, followed by Yamalapalli at world No. 369. The remaining four places in the main draw will be decided after the final round of qualifying on Sunday.
Austria’s Lilli Tagger is seeded second, followed by Poland’s Magda Linette at third and Hungary’s Panna Udvardy at fourth. Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew is the fifth seed, while Uzbekistan’s Polina Kudermetova, Serbia’s Teodora Kostovic and Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa occupy the sixth, seventh and eighth seeds, respectively.
In doubles, Rutuja Bhosale returns after reaching the semi-finals last year and will partner Vaishnavi Adkar.
India will have four pairings featuring its players, including wild-card entries Diya Ramesh and Deepshika Vinayagamurthy, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi, and Ankita Raina, who will partner Japan’s Hiroko Kuwata.
(PTI News)
