Rutuja Bhosale who had won the gold medal for India at the recently concluded Asian Games in China, will shoulder another responsibility of flying the Indian flag flying high when she begins her quest for glory in the Bowring Institute ITF Women’s World Tour. Given the tag of the third seed, the 27-year-old takes on fellow Indian Smriti Bhasin in the US $ 25,000 prize money event, the main rounds of which begin at the Bowring Institute tennis courts from Tuesday.

The only other Indian in the top eight seeds is Vaidehi Chaudhari who is seeded fourth and takes on wild card entrant Anjal Rathi in her opening encounter. Rutuja The field is headed by Uzbekistan’s Nigina Abduraimova who will meet Ekaterina Yashina in her first round while Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee has been handed the tag of second seed and will clash with India’s another wild card entrant Sharmada Balu.

Meanwhile, Indians grabbed all the eight qualifying spots, registering contrasting wins which saw the exit of three seeded players. In the biggest upset of the day, 11^th seed Kundali Majgaine knocked out the top seed Sandeepti Singh Rao 6-3, 2-6, 10-6 in a match that lasted for two hours while Sonal Patil continued her dream run in the qualifiers after she stunned second seed Sravya Shivani in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to make it to the main round. In another upset match, Pooja Ingale overcame the fancied fifth seed Soha Sadiq 6-3, 7-5.

Results

Qualifying Round-2 (All Indians unless mentioned in brackets)

Yashaswini Panwar bt Apurva Vemuri 6-1, 6-3; Sonal Patil bt 2-Sravya Shivani 6-4, 6-2; 6-Saumya Vig bt Abhilasha Bista (NEP) 6-0, 6-3; 8-Paavanii Paathak bt Sejal Gopal Bhutada 7-6 (5), 6-4; 11-Kundali Majgaine bt 1-Sandeepti Singh Rao 6-3, 2-6, 10-6; Vanshita Pathania bt Arthi Muniyan 0-6, 6-4, 10-7; Pooja Ingale bt 5-Soha Sadiq 6-3, 7-5; Lakshmi Prabha Arunkumar bt Nidhitra Rajmohan 6-1, 6-4.

Seedings for main draw

1-Nigina Abduraimova (UZB); 2-Lanlana Tararudee (THA); 3-Rutuja Bhosale (IND); 4-Vaidehi Chaudhari (IND); 5-Zhibek Kulambayeva (KAZ); 6-Jenny Duerst (SUI); 7-Zhibek Kulambayeva (KAZ); 8-Punnin Kovapitukted (THA).