Seeds advance to round two in Qualifiers

The Qualifying Draw matches began on day one of the MSLTA-NDHTA ITF $15K Women’s Tennis Tournament at the NDHTA Ramnagar courts on sunday morning. The newly laid courts helped the players with good bounce and long rallies that followed. The seeded players were able to advance to round two, and most matches were straight sets, except for two.

Tournament Director Sudhir Bhiwapurkar was pleased to welcome Tournament Supervisor Sheetal Iyer and her team of Chair Umpires. "Nagpur has now become a permanent centre for International Tennis tournaments, and with help of MSLTA and AITA, Nagpur will get more and moe prestigious tournaments that will benefit not just local players, but top ranked India players as well” said a beaming Bhiwapurkar.

MSLTA Secretary Sunder Iyer has come down to meet officials and thank other sponsors, because of who such tournaments are possible. This tournament is being supported by Mihan India Ltd (MIL), Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation Ltd (MADCL) and Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Dr Vipin Itankar, Municipal Commissioner, is an avid sportsperson, who encourages the youth to engage in fitness and sports. He conveyed his best wishes to the organisers. MSLTA President Prashant Sutar has a vision to bring more such tournaments to Nagpur, including ATP Challenger, which is considered very prestigious and beneficial to players who are in the world rankings.

In the Main draw, we will see players like Ankita Raina, Vaishnavi Adkar and Zeel Desai who will fight opponents from Denmark, GBR, Russia and Malaysia.

Players who advanced today are Yashaswini Panwar (1), Sandeepti Singh (2), Laxmisiri Dandu (3) Janani Ramesh (4), Ekaterina Khodzaeva (5), Kashish Bhatia (6), Vanshita Pathania (7), Sahira Singh (8), Saumya Ronde (9), and Chevika Reddy (11).