Playing in their first WTA event, India's young tennis stars, Karman Kaur Thandi and Zeel Desai, failed to impress the home crowd as they crashed out of the Mumbai Open
Playing in their first WTA event, India's young tennis stars, Karman Kaur Thandi and Zeel Desai, failed to impress the home crowd as they crashed out of the Mumbai Open after straight set defeats in their respective singles first round matches at the Cricket Club of India yesterday.
India's Zeel Desai and Karman Kaur Thandi during their respective singles matches of the WTA Mumbai Open at Cricket Club of India, Churchgate yesterday. Pics/Suresh Karkera
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Thandi, who emerged runner-up at the Pune Open earlier this month, lost 2-6, 4-6 to Slovakia's Dalila Jakupovic, while Desai went down 3-6, 1-6 to Canada's Carol Zhao. Thandi began rather tamely as Jakupovic, seizing the opportunity, zoomed into a 5-1 lead in the opening set. The lanky Indian did try to fight back but managed to pull just one game back before losing the first set. Thandi, 19, began the second set well and managed to stay ahead at 4-3 but a series of unforced errors thereafter saw Jakupovic take the set 6-4 and wrap up the match.
"I played much better in the second set but lost some points due to errors. She used the drop shot well," Thandi, who is currently ranked 284 in the WTA rankings said. Meanwhile, Desai, 18, also succumbed to pressure against her experienced seventh-seed opponent, Zhao. The fact that Desai managed to win just two games across the two sets shows the Canadian's domination throughout the encounter. "This match was important to me as I got a wildcard entry here but she [Zhao] was just too aggressive, and I made quite a few errors in service too. A lot of games went into deuce but she converted them well probably because she's a lot more experienced," said Desai.
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