Top seeds progress easily to the second round

Thiruvanathapuram, May 14 (UNI) Top seed players moved to the second round with comfortable victories over their rivals in the opening day of the Kerala Open International Women's Tennis Tournament here today.

Belgium lass and tournament third seed, Yanina Wickmayer, found no difficulty to move to the second round beating Asmitha Eswaramurthi (Ind) by 6-1, 6-0.

However, fourth seed Rushmi Chakravarthi of India struggled hard to beat her team mate Poojashree Venkatesha, 6-3, 6-4.

Sixth seed Barr Cassandra (Aus) and eighth seed Bhambri Sanaa (IND) came up with victories over Maninne Giraud (MRI) 6-3, 6-2 and Unnathi Purushotham (IND) 6-2, 6-1, respectively.

In another singles match, Stephanie Macfarlane of Australia lost to Kumari Sweta Solanki of India, 6-4, 4-6 and 2-6.

Earlier, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan inaugurated the tournament.

Thirty-two players in the singles event and 16 pairs in the doubles vie for top honours in the week-long tournament.

Following are the doubles results: Ashmitha Eswaramurthi and Panja Maloo of India beat Prerana Mythri Appineni and Chirashanthi Rajur, 6-0 and 6-3.

Gadigeppa Shweta Kakhandki-Kumari Sweta Solanki pair beat Anupama Raju and Arthi Venkaraman, 6-4, 6-1.

Marinne Giraud (MRI)/Marinne Muci-Torres (VEN) pair beat Sai Jayalakshmy Jayaram/ Meghha Vakaria compaine, 3-6, 6-3 and 6-2.

UNI