Sport - Tennis

Sunitha is the sole Indian survivor

Bangalore: Sunitha Rao was the sole Indian survivor at the end of the first qualifying rounds for the Bangalore Open WTA Tier II tennis tournament here on Saturday.

The Fed Cup player, based in the USA, defeated Russia’s Vesna Manasieva 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.

Sunitha, ranked 181 in the World, pocketed the first set; hit a snag in the second before finding her forehand in the decisive third set against a higher-placed rival with a ranking of 150.

While Sunitha helped the Indian flag stay afloat, her other Indian colleagues fell by the wayside.

The Bhambri sisters, Ankita and Sanaa, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Akshitha Basavaraju suffered losses in their opening qualifying round to crash out of the tournament.

On the Centre Court, Sunitha lost her grip in the second set as she lost serve in the opening game and soon Manasieva was up 2-0.

Sunitha barely managed to scrape through the third game after a forehand that crashed into the net left her staring at deuce.

She held her nerve and served to salvage the point before breaking back in the next to draw level as Manasieva suffered three successive double faults.

At 2-2, Sunitha had a chance to inch ahead, but she blew her service game and two forehand errors helped her rival to break back.