Mumbai: India’s top ranked ladies player Ankita Raina, one of the four Indian wild cards, has been drawn to meet unseeded Russian Veronika Kudermetova in the first round of the L&T Mumbai Open WTA 125K Series to be played at the CCI tennis courts, on Monday. The draw ceremony was held on Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Karman Kaur Thandi, the second highest ranked Indian at 312, will meet Slovenia’s 26-year-old Dalila Jakupovic, ranked 242, in the first round, while Maharashtra girl 21-year-old Rutuja Bhosale, ranked at 604, opens her campaign against qualifier 23-year-old Deniz Khazaniuk of Israel, who is ranked 274. The Israel girl comfortably won both her qualifying matches on Saturday and Sunday to make the main draw.
The fourth Indian to get a wild card, 18-year-old Zeel Desai, ranked at 790, has the toughest draw as she faces off against the seventh-seeded 22-year-old Carol Zhao of Canada, who is ranked 150 in the world.
“I have played Veronika sometime last year in doubles but have not seen her play recently. But my focus is going to be on myself. I think it will be a good first round,” said Raina.
Rutuja, who won two ITF titles this year, at Aurangabad (June) and Hua Hin (September) seemed upbeat about her participation in the event. “I am going to take a lot of positives from here and not going to put pressure on myself. It will help me train harder and if I can compete with these girls right now, it will help in the coming years,” said Rutuja, who graduated from A&M Texas University and trains under Hemant Bendre in Pune.
Meanwhile, top seed 19-year-old Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who is ranked 79, will take on unseeded Priscilla Hon of Australia, who is of the same age, but ranked much lower at 231.
Second seed 24-year-old Ana Bogdan, ranked 111 and who came through the qualifying rounds, will play her first round against Mexico’s 22-year-old Victoria Rodriguez, who is placed 151 places lower.
Meanwhile, Laura Robson of Great Britain, will face a tight first round as she will clash third seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
Results: (final qualifying round)
Ana Bogdan (Rou) bt Naiktha Bains (Aus) 6-0, 6-1; Deniz Khazaniuk (Isr) bt Ling Zhang (Hkg) 7-5, 6-4; Alizé Lim (Fra) bt Julia Glushko (Isr) 6-0, 6-3; Hiroko Kuwata (Jpn) bt Anna Morgina (Rus) 7-5, 6-4
