Nefisa Berberovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina heads the seedings list in the NECC $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament to be played at the Deccan Gymkhana here from Tuesday.
With all the eight seeds being foreigners, the task is cut out for the leading Indian players, Karman Kaur, Rutuja Bhosale, Zeel Desai, Pranjala Yadlapalli, Sowjanya Bavisetti and company.
Zeel starts against second seed Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan, while Rutuja will be challenged by Shrivalli Bhamidipaty.
Pranjala opens against wild card Farhat Aleen Qamar and could meet third seed Chihiro Muramatsu if she makes the second round.
Karman will play Mihika Yadav in the first round and the winner could run into Nefisa in the second round.
The Indian players did well to grab five of the eight qualifiers’ spots, with Nidhi Chilumula scoring a thrilling 4-6, 6-4, [10-6] win over second seed Jennifer Luikham.
Shreya Tatavarthy was equally efficient during her 6-1, 6-2 win over eighth seed Elena Jamshidi of Denmark.
Overall, it should be an exciting week of action for Indian women’s tennis.
The results:
Qualifying (second and final round): Clara Vlasselaer (Bel) bt Ramya Natarajan 6-1, 6-2; Nidhi Chilumula bt Jennifer Luikham 4-6, 6-4, [10-6]; So-Ra Lee (Kor) bt Ishwari Matere 6-1, 6-2; Sathwika Sama bt Saumya Vig 6-0, 6-1; Arthi Muniyan bt Sharmada Balu 1-6, 6-4, [10-1]; Weronika Baszak (Pol) bt Soha Sadiq 6-4, 6-4; Shrivalli Bhamidipaty bt Humera Baharmus 6-1, 6-4; Shreya Tatavarthy bt Elena Jamshidi (Den) 6-1, 6-2.
Seedings: 1. Nefisa Berberovic (BIH), 2, Anna Danilina (Kaz), 3. Chhiro Muramatsu (Jpn), 4. Diana Marcinkevica (Lat), 5. Nigina Abduraimova (Uzb), 6. Akiko Omae (Jpn), 7. Ekaterina Yashina (Rus), 8. Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr).
