Bad day for Bhambri sisters

Unseeded Sasha Abraham upset seventh seed Ankita Bhambri after a marathon battle to advance in the $10,000 Bhavna Swarup ITF women's tennis tournament in Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday.

Sasha won the grass-court duel 7-6(10/8), 2-6, 6-2, as the rest of the seeded players, including top seed Rushmi Chakravarty, reached the second round posting easy wins.

The in-form Rushmi beat qualifier Orawan Lamangthong of Thailand 6-4, 6-3 while second seed Sai Jayalakshmi breezed past Geeta Manohar 6-2, 6-4.

It was a bad day for the Bhambri sisters, as promising Sana Bhambri also went out, losing to Archana Venkataraman 2-6, 3-6.

The 15-year-old Sana, ranked 50th in the world amongst the juniors, had last week won a doubles title in Japan, partnering Sania Mirza.

Last year's winner at the $5,000 ITF event Shruti Dhawan moved up, defeating Georgette Wright of the US 6-2, 6-2.

In other matches, Julia Vorobieva of Russia trounced Marutha Devi 6-1, 6-1. Devi made the main draw as a lucky loser after losing in the qualifiers.

Britain's Natalie Neri beat Samarita Sekhar after a tough three-setter, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, while Liza Pereira won 6-1, 6-1 against Austria's Christina Obermoser.

In the doubles, Rushmi and Sai combined to beat Ludmila (Czech Republic) and Julia 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. Also winning were Shruti and Yael (Israel), who beat Marutha and Katie Miles of Britain 6-2, 6-1.

Sasha also won her doubles match, paring with Samarita, as Franziska Etzel of Britain and Obermoser conceded the match when trailing 2-6, 0-1.