It was a great day at work for Bharatiya singles tennis players as
Ankita Raina, Rutuja Bhosale and Ramkumar Ramanathan reached the
pre-quarterfinals stage on the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou.
In her round of 32 match, Ankita defeated Uzbekistan’s Sabrina
Olimjonova by 6-0, 6-0 in two straight sets in a matter of 51 minutes. She
captured both the sets in less than 30 minutes.
In her match Rutuja Bhosale beat Kazakhstan’s Aruzhan Sagandykova
by 7-6 (2), 6-2. The first set involved a tiebreaker but the second set was
extremely one-sided. The first set lasted for 76 minutes, while the second
ended in 45 minutes, giving the match a total duration of a little over two
hours.
Ramkumar was given a walkover by his opponent Sunatullo Isroilov of
Tajikistan as he was unable to compete.
Earlier, Bharatiya tennis player Sumit Nagal started his 19th Asian
Games men’s singles campaign in style as he defeated Macao China’s Ho Tin Marco
6-0, 6-0 in straight sets on Sunday.
Nagal had received a bye in the first round.
The Bharatiya played a flawless game as he thrashed Marco without
losing a game. This triumph was not just a personal accomplishment for Nagal,
but also a proud moment for Bharat, reinforcing the country’s presence in the
Asian tennis arena.
To this point, Nagal has accomplished a number of noteworthy feats.
He and his Vietnamese partner Ly Hoang Nam won the Wimbledon boys’ doubles
title in 2015, making him the sixth Bharatiya player to win a junior Grand Slam
title.
At the US Open in 2019, he competed in his first grand slam main
draw match, where he faced Roger Federer in his opening round match.
Also, the Bharatiya men’s doubles duo Saketh Myneni and Ramanathan
Ramkumar have progressed to pre-quarter-finals at the Asian Games after
registering a dominating straight-set win over Nepal’s Bastola Abhishek and
Khadka Pradip on Sunday.
Saketh-Ramanathan defeated Nepal by 6-2, 6-3 in just 57 minutes.
The Bharatiya tennis team started their campaign on September 24
and tennis events will be played till September 30.
In the history of the Asian Games, Bharat has secured 32 medals in
tennis, nine gold medals, six silver medals and 17 bronze medals.
ANI
