Melbourne: Top-ranked woman player of India, Ankita Raina advanced to the final round of the Australian Open Qualifiers with a valiant three-set win over world number 118 Katarina Zavatska, but it was all over for Ramkumar Ramanathan in the men’s singles.
Ankita, ranked 108th, fought hard against Zavatska to win 6-2 2-6 6-3 in the women’s singles qualifiers being played in Dubai.
“I started well in the first set and the first two games of second set. Then the third game was kind of crucial because she won that game and got confident and played more balls back but I’m glad I could shift the momentum back,” Ankita was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Ankita will next face 20-year-old Serbian Olga Danilovic, ranked 183.
In the men’s singles qualifiers played in Doha, Ramkumar lost his second-round encounter to Chinese Taipei’s Tung-Lin Wu 3-6 2-6 in 69 minutes.
