Tennis: Fatma enters Pune quarterfinals

Sports Wednesday 13/December/2017 21:19 PM
By: Times News Service
Tennis: Fatma enters Pune quarterfinals

Muscat: Playing aggressive and attacking tennis, Fatma Al Nabhani brushed aside the challenge of Ukraine’s Anastasiya Vasylyeva to the enter the quarterfinals of the $25,000 NECC-Deccan ITF Pro Circuit Tournament in the western Indian city of Pune on Wednesday.
In a second round clash, the Omani star dominated her Ukrainian opponent from the beginning and went on win the match 6-2, 6-4 in a little over one hour and 20 minutes.
Fatma, who as a lucky loser from the qualifying round created an upset by defeating sixth-seeded Latvia’s Diana Marcinkevica in the first round, will take on her doubles partner and Chinese top seed Jia-Jing Lu in the last eight stage on Thursday.
Jia-Jing Lu, meanwhile, was made to toil by her second round opponent Gozal Ainitdinova of Kazakhstan before reaching the qaurterfinals. Though the 19-year-old Ainitdinova fought bravely to rally from the first set deficit, the Chinese top seed kept her cool and won the match by a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 margin.
In the doubles competition, the challenge of Fatma and Jia-Jing ended in the first round on Monday when they went down fighting 6-2, 5-7 (10-8) to Russian fourth seeds Olga Doroshina and Anna Morgina.