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Rutuja Bhosale of India shocked second-seeded Valentini Grammatikopoulou with a remarkable 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory in the singles opening round of the ITF Women's Open at the KSLTA Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
The unseeded Bhosale lost the first set but fought back impressively to overcome her tough Greek opponent, a World No. 198, in a thrilling three-setter to enter the Round-of-16. Another Indian Zeel Desai, who had won her second ITF women's tour title last month, also made a bright beginning with a facile 6-3, 6-2 victory against German qualifier Rebecca Sarah Sekulic. The 24-year-old Ahmedabad-born Desai came into the tournament as a wild card entry. Top-rated Indian Ankita Raina also lived up to the expectations and made a winning start to her campaign defeating compatriot Vanshita Pathania 6-3, 6-0. Earlier, 15-year-old tennis sensation Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic vindicated her top seeding in the event with a crushing 6-1, 6-0 win over Taipei's Lee Ya-Hsuan. Fruhvirtova made her Grand Slam debut in Australia earlier this year--becoming the fifth youngest qualifier to reach the Australian Open main draw. Meanwhile, Vaidehi Chaudhari, who had two excellent outings in the qualifiers, could not repeat the performance and went down to sixth-seeded Indonesian Madelyn Nugroho 2-6, 1-6. Sahaja Yamalapalli, another Indian wildcard entrant, also suffered a 6-7 (8), 3-6 defeat against Latvia's Diana Marcinkevica. (ANI)
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