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Sunitha sweats it to round II, Kudryavtseva, Shvedova shown the door

By Staff

Kolkata, Sep 18 (UNI) Indian wildcard to the WTA Sony Ericsson Tier III Sunfeast Open kept the flag flying after a tough call against Lucky Loser Indonesian Sandy Gumulya 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 on a saw the end of fifth seed Alla Kudryavtseva and ninth seed Yaroslava Shvedova.

In the other major matches Tatania Poutchek and Tzipora Obziler shut out two Russians in fifth seed Alla Kudryavtseva and ninth seed Yaroslava Shvedova in contrasting styles.

Twenty-two year old Sunitha Rao, ranked 211, who has always been a crowd favourite at the Sunfeast Open here, overcame a scare from Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia here today to enter the second round with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over the lucky loser.

Wild card Sunitha, who was slated to meet Sania Mirza in the first round, came up against the lucky loser, ranked 316, after Sania pulled out of the meet.

The first set saw Gumulya break the Indian in the first and third game and wrap it up in just 34 minutes. The acute angles created by the Indonesian and the strong returns made snapped Sunitha's resistance.

However, in the second set, Sunitha got a wake up call in the seventh game, after having traded breaks in the fifth and sixth. In the seventh she played a great service game to hold and led at 4-3.

She broke again in the eighth, but was broken back immediately. But she broke in the 10 th again to take the set at 6-4. She began to move faster and cut down on her angles.

That revival kind of took the spirit out of the Indonesian and she lost the plot. And Sunitha, after having lost her serve in the first game, broke back in the second and fourth. She was again broken in the seventh, but managed to break in the eighth to win 6-2.

"I was a bit rusty not having had match practice for the last two weeks. My game can only get better now," Sunitha said after the match adding that she was getting a bit frustrated also at not being able to play up to her potential.

Earlier, in an ill-tempered encounter Belarusian girl Tatiana Poutchek pulled the first upset wearing down fifth seed Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-3 on Day II of the Sunfeast Open here on today.

Poutchek had always performed well against the Russian. The duo met in Lebanon last year and the Belarusian, who has three ITF Circuit crowns to her credit, had won 6-2, 6-3 on clay.

From the very first game of the opening set, Poutchek and Kudryavtseva started firing strokes from the baseline. Kudryavtseva blinked first and in the fourth game, Poutchek broke her to go 3-1 up. She soon made it 4-1. The world No.100 held her serves to clinch the first set 6-3.

It's not as if Poutchek's game showed a turn for the better, but Kudryavtseva, who possesses more shots in her armoury, started spraying them. The Russian lost the plot in then second set after a brief resistance to hand over a victory to Poutchek in an hour and 29 minutes.

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Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 16:00 [IST]
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