Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty was amongst the three Indians out of 14 to enter the second round of qualifying in the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open that began at the KSLTA Stadium here on Sunday. The 13^th seed overcame a fighting Ekaterina Yashina 7-5, 7-6 (5) in the first round.

Zeel Desai seeded 14^th and 11^th seed Vaidehi Chaudhary were the other Indians who advanced to the final round of qualifying. Eight qualifiers will be spotted on Monday who will play the main draw that begins on Tuesday.

Ekaterina began on a strong note earning a break in the second game itself and kept the pressure on her opponent. With the players choosing to adopt the baseline play and waiting for their opponent to commit a mistake, both held their respective serves for the next seven games. Rashmikaa, who had won her maiden ITF title at the Bowring Institute ITF Open late last year, won the next three games including two breaks in the 10^th and 12^th game to take the first set 7-5.

In the second set, both the rivals traded a break each in the 5^th and 6^th games respectively before Ekaterina broke the Indian’s serve in the seventh game and held her serve in the next to lead 5-3. The 22-year-old Rashmikaa, capitalised on the mistakes committed by her opponent to win the next three games earning a break in the 10^th game to lead 6-5. Ekaterina held her serve to take the set into a tie-breaker which could have gone either way.

Results Qualifying (Round of 32)

(All Indians unless mentioned, prefix denotes seeding)

1-Diana Marcinkevica (LAT) bt Lakshmi Gowda 6-2, 6-1; 12-Mei Yamaguchi (JPN) bt Yukina Saigo (JPN) 6-2, 6-0; 8-Saki Imamura (JPN) bt Yu-Yun Li (TPE) 6-1, 6-2; 16-Punnin Kovapitukted (THA) bt Elena Jamshidi (DEN) 6-0, 6-3; 10-Viktoria Morvayova (SVK) bt Akanksha Dileep Nitture 6-2, 6-4; 14-Zeel Desai bt Saumya Vig 6-3, 6-0; 4-Tina Nadine Smith (AUS) bt WC-Prathiba Narayan Prasad 6-0, 6-1; 15-Mana Kawamura (JPN) bt Vanshita Pathania 6-2, 6-4; 7-Naho Sato (JPN) bt Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi 6-0, 6-0; 13-Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty bt Ekaterina Yashina 7-5, 7-6 (5); 11-Vaidehi Chaudhari bt WC-Kashvi Sunil 6-1, 6-1; 3-Rina Saigo (JPN) bt Smriti Bhasin 6-4, 6-0; 6-Eri Shimizu (JPN) bt Sharmada Balu 6-4, 6-1; 9-Lena Papadakis (GER) bt Vaishnavi Adkar 6-2, 7-5; 5-Thasaporn Naklo (THA) bt WC-Paavanii Paathak 6-2, 6-0; 2-Anna Siskova (CZE) bt Humera Baharmus 6-2, 6-1.