PUNE, JAN. 22:

The champion of the last tournament Darja Semenistaja of Latvia will start as the top seed in the NECC $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament to be played at the Deccan Gymkhana from Tuesday.

Darja will open against Sahaja Yamalapalli who had done very well to win a $25,000 event recently.

Ankita Raina is the only Indian player to be seeded in the strong field, and the seventh seed will play Sapfo Sakellaridi of Greece in the first round.

None of the 15 Indian players in the qualifying event could win two rounds. Only two of them, Humera Baharmus and Zeel Desai made the second and final round. Zeel did lose a tough three setter to eighth seed Viktoria Morvayova of Slovakia, but made the main draw as a lucky-loser.

Zeel will play compatriot Rutuja Bhosale in the first round of the main draw. Vaidehi Chaudhari, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, Vaishnavi Adkar and Madhurima Sawant have been given wild card entries.

In doubles, Prarthana Thombare has been seeded No.2 with Sapfo Sakellaridi. Rutuja Bhosale and Ankita Raina combine to be seeded third.

The seedings: 1. Darja Semenistaja (Lat), 2. Anastasia Tikhonova, 3. Moyuka Uchijima (Jpn), 4. Himeno Sakatsume (Jpn), 5. Alexandra Eala (Phi), 6. Carole Monnet (Fra), 7. Ankita Raina, 8. Tatiana Prozorova.

The results:

Qualifying singles (second and final round): Punnin Kovapitukted (Tha) bt Jessie Aney (USA) 6-4, 6-1; Tina Nadine Smith (Aus) bt Mei Yamaguchi (Jpn) 6-1, 4-6, 7-5; Anouk Koevermans (Ned) bt Lena Papadakis (Ger) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Naho Sato (Jpn) bt Humera Baharmus 6-3, 6-1; Eri Shimizu (Jpn) bt Mana Kawamura (Jpn) 6-2, 6-2; Naiktha Bains (GBR) bt Yukina Saigo (Jpn) 6-0, 6-4; Saki Imamura (Jpn) bt Ekaterina Yashina 6-4, 7-6(2); Viktoria Morvayova (Svk) bt Zeel Desai 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

First round: Jessie Aney bt Sravya Shivani 6-4, 6-3; Punnin Kovapitukted bt Sonal Patil 6-3, 6-3; Tina Nadine bt Smriti Bhasin 6-0, 6-4; Mei Yamaguchi bt Yu-Yun Li (Tpe) 6-4, 6-0; Anouk Koevermans bt Lakshmi Prabha 6-2, 6-2; Lena Papadakis bt Sameeksha Shroff 6-0, 6-1; Naho Sato bt Jennifer Luikham 6-3, 6-1; Humera Baharmus bt Akanksha Nitture 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-3; Eri Shimizu bt Paavanii Paathak 6-2, 6-0; Mana Kawamura bt Nidhitra Rajmohan 6-0, 6-0; Naiktha Bains bt Soha Sadiq 5-7, 6-2, 6-2; Yukina Saigo bt Saumya Vig 6-1, 7-5; Saki Imamura bt Elena Jamshidi (Den) 6-1, 6-0; Ekaterina Yashina bt Anastasia Grechkina 3-6, 6-4, 7-5; Viktoria Morvayova bt Ishwari Matere 6-4, 6-0; Zeel Desai bt Sanjana Sirimalla 6-2, 6-0.