Indians eye strong finish to season as ITF women's tennis tournament begins in Mumbai

It will be a nice chance for the Indian players to finish the season on a high, even though none of them gets a seeding in the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament that begins on Tuesday.

FILE PHOTO: Pranjala Yadlapalli has been grappling with an injury and will be up against Vaidehi.

It will be a nice chance for the Indian players to finish the season on a high, even though none of them gets a seeding in the $25,000 ITF
women’s tennis tournament that begins at the Ganesh Naik Complex on
Tuesday.

The presence of Riya Bhatia should lend an edge to the Indian aspirations, along with the other direct entrants Zeel Desai, Sowjanya
Bavisetti, Rutuja Bhosale, Vaidehi Chaudhari and Pranjala Yadlapalli.

Riya may have a tough start against qualifier Sathwika Sama who won
her three matches with ease in making it to the main draw.

Pranjala has been grappling with an injury and will be up against Vaidehi. Humera Baharmus also did well to qualify and will be up against wild card entrant Jennifer Luikham who has stepped up her game this season.

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National champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty will open against fifth seed Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia. And the Fenesta national champion Zeel
Desai will play Clara Vlasselaer of Belgium.

Qualifier Arthi Muniyan will challenge Ekaterina Reyngold of Russia who reached the semifinals last week in Pune.

Anna Siskova of the Czech Republic is the top seed and will play Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine in the first round. The champion of the
last tournament, Moyuka Uchijima of Japan will open against sixth seed
Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan.