Tuesday 30 / April / 2024
Muscat: Fatma Al Nabhani failed to cross the first hurdle in the doubles competition of the $25,000 Goyang ITF Pro Circuit tournament in South Korea on Tuesday but will continue her campaign in the singles event.
In the doubles, the Omani star and her Thai partner Patcharin Cheapchandej came up against a strong local pair of Seung-Yeon Hong and Seo-Kyung Kang.
The Omani-Thai duo, however, gave a good fight stretching their opponents to the limit. But they failed to stop the Korean girls from winning 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7).
In the singles, seventh-seeded Fatma will begin her campaign on Wednesday with a match against 792nd ranked local girl Dabin Kim.
Fatma, who is currently ranked 421 in the singles, is yet to regain the form that fetched her five titles in 2015.
Last month, the Omani, whose highest career ranking of 362 came way back in 2010, took part in a highly rated $100,000 Anning ITF Pro Circuit tournament in China where she bowed out in the first round of both singles and doubles.
In the singles, she lost 3-6, 3-6 to Australian Jessica Moore and in the doubles, Fatma and her Japanese partner Junri Naigata were beaten 3-6, 3-6 by Thailand’s Varatchaya Wongteanchai and China’s Zhaoxuan Yang.
Fatma had a great year in 2015 when she won five $10,000 titles, including two back-to-back crowns in south Indian city of Hyderabad.
In 2013, she won back-to-back $10,000 Sharm El Sheikh titles in Egypt and similar level tournaments in Fujairah in 2010 and 2012 respectively.
