Fifth-seeded Indian tennis star Ankita Raina displayed resilience and determination in her pre-quarterfinal match at the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Ourense, Spain. Facing Maria Vaquero of Spain, Raina fought back from a set down to secure a hard-fought 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory.
Raina started the match with a dominant performance, taking the first set with ease at 6-1. However, Vaquero responded strongly in the second set, leveling the match with a 6-3 win. Undeterred, Raina regained her composure in the decisive third set. She broke Vaquero’s serve twice and held her own service games comfortably to seal the victory.
With this win, Raina advances to the quarterfinals, where she will face top seed Valentina Ryser of Switzerland. Ryser, ranked 150th in the world, will pose a significant challenge for Raina. However, the Indian star has shown great form throughout the tournament and will be confident of putting up a strong fight.
In other matches involving Indian players, Sriram Balaji and Fernando Romboli of Brazil received a walkover in the pre-quarterfinals of the $164,000 Challenger in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Anirudh Chandrasekar and Niki Poonacha bowed out of the $133,250 Challenger in Cary, USA, losing 4-6, 7-6(9), [10-8] to Federico Gomez of Argentina and Petros Tsitsipas of Greece.
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth advanced to the quarterfinals of the $74,825 Challenger in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland, with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Benjamin Bonzi and Harold Mayot of France.
In the $25,000 ITF men’s tournament in Muttenz, Switzerland, Sddhant Bantha and Eric Vanshelboim of Ukraine defeated Nicolas Kuepfer of Switzerland and Patrick Zahraj of Germany 7-6(5), 6-2. Alexander Merino of Peru and Christoph Negritu of Germany also progressed to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Axel Cabrera of Mexico and Chinmaya Dev Chauhan.
In the $15,000 ITF men’s tournament in Bielsko Biala, Poland, Aryan Lakshmanan and Przemyslaw Michocki of Poland reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jakub Jedrzejczak and Pawel Juszczak of Poland.
In the $15,000 ITF women’s tournament in Xiamen, China, Riya Bhatia and Michika Ozeki of Japan advanced to the quarterfinals with a 2-6, 6-2, [10-8] win over Ren Ke and Zou Ruirui of China.
