Shivani keeps main draw hopes alive

BANGALORE: Youngster Shivani Manjanna produced a stellar performance in her maiden ITF tournament to defeat Pragati Nataraj 6-3, 6-4 in the first qualifying round of the $10,0000 Zuari Garden City Open at the KSLTA courts on Saturday.
The 14-year-old Bangalore girl shrugged off a slow start to gain momentum and dominate her opponent with an attacking style of play. In another match, Malaysian Theivlya Selvarajoo survived an initial hiccup to defeat Adnya Naik 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 in a marathon match that lasted close to three hours.Shivani and thirteen other Indians, along with Australian Abbie Meyers, advanced to the second round of qualifiers.
Qualifiers results (Round of 32; Indians unless specified): Sweetha Sree Hari bt Arundathi Sudan 6-1, 6-0; Srishti Salaria bt Disha Satish Agarwal 6-0, 3-0 (retd); Abbie Myers (Aus) bt Saumya Vig 6-3, 6-0; Sai Samhitha Chamarthi bt Rashmika Rajan 6-2, 6-2; Aashima Garg bt Abhilash Vishwanath 6-4, 7-6 (4); Arthi Muniyan bt Preethi Ujjini 6-1, 6-3; Sona Sadiq bt Nisda Shahid Kamal 6-3, 6-4; Amala Amol Warrick bt Nupur Umashankar 7-6 (4), 6-3; Moulika Ram bt Thanushree Vale 6-4, 6-1; Rishika Ravindran bt Sahan Shetty 6-4, 7-5; Simran Kaur Sethi bt Muskaan Ranjan 6-0, 6-1; Praveen Shivekar bt Reshma Ganapathy 6-2, 6-1; Nithya Raj Babu Raj bt Anushka Sathe 6-1, 6-1; Snehadevi S Reddy bt Ramya Natarajan 6-1, 6-1; Theivlya Selvarajoo (Mas) bt Adnya Naik 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4.