Ankita also shrugged off poor umpiring to emerge a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 winner in two hours and 25 minutes against a player, who was ranked as high as 27 last year and had beaten top-10 players.
'To win a medal, the players will have to play a couple of tough rounds. The draws are fine, and balanced and give us the opportunity to go deep.'
Sania Mirza and Sumit Nagal failed to make the cut for the mixed doubles event due to their low combined ranking of 153.
Rutuja Bhosale rallied from the brink in the deciding set to win yet another marathon contest but Ankita Raina suffered her second straight singles defeat as India and Taiwan were locked 1-1 in their Fed Cup match , in Dubai, on Friday.
Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan used all their experience to bounce back and enter the men's doubles final of the Asian Games, in Palembang, on Thursday.
Tennis ace Sania Mirza has revealed the names of players she thinks will rule the tennis circuit in a few years time.
It all began at the WTA event in Mumbai and a phenomenal Fed Cup, where she remained unbeaten in singles and also beat a top-50 player. The performance brought about a change in perception about her.
The Pool B comprises Chinese Taipei, Japan, Thailand and Korea.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Somdev Devvarman reached the singles semi-final of the Delhi Open after Ze Zhang retired mid-way due to a shoulder injury even as Ankita Raina waged a brave fight before bowing out of the women's ITF event on Friday.
Indian women stormed into the finals of the Fed Cup (Group-II) Asia-Oceania tennis tournament in Hyderabad following another one-sided 2-0 victory over Turkmenistan.
The unseeded Indo-Croat pairing had received a walkover in the pre-quarters on Sunday against Netherlands' Matwe Middelkoop and Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador.
In singles, Sumit Nagal was placed at world No. 256 as the top-ranked Indian men's singles player in ATP Rankings, while Asian Games bronze medallist Ankita Raina was the best India women's singles player at world No. 212.
The star-studded TPL auction saw the presence of the tennis icons Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, who gathered together after many years to promote the sport, along with Bollywood celebs Rakul Preet Singh and Sonali Bendre.
Sania Mirza feels Ankita Raina's performance in the recent Fed Cup was encouraging
India will host its first WTA tournament in five years when the city of Mumbai stages a $ 125,000 event in November, giving home players an opportunity to compete with the world's top-50.
Sania will represent India in Tokyo in the women's doubles event with Ankita Raina.
However, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina's campaign ended in the first round itself.
Canada's Eugenie Bouchard quelled a second set fightback from India's Karman Kaur Thandi to win 6-2, 7-6 in the round of 16 and book a spot in the singles quarter-final of the Chennai Open WTA 250 tennis tournament.
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza says she would do all it takes to maintain her world number one ranking.
Tennis ace Rohan Bopanna, hockey great P R Sreejesh and table tennis legend Sharath Kamal, are gearing up for one last hurrah at the Asian Games, starting in Hangzhou, from September 23.
Read on to find out more!
First launched in 1924 and celebrating its centenary next year, the Wimbledon Ballot is intended to be the fairest means of obtaining tickets for The Championships.
Earlier in the tournament, Karman had caused an upset by defeating the second seed Robin Anderson (USA) in the first round and Japanese Ena Shibahara, one-half of the French Open 2022 mixed double champions in the second round.
Alison Riske-Amritraj will be eager to build on that in the land of her in-laws.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
It was the first time in open era that two Indian teams competed against each other at a Grand Slam tournament.
If Nagal, a wild card entrant and world number 139, can cross the first hurdle, he will run into either 19th seed Russian Karen Khachanov or local wild card Aleksandar Vukic.
India's Ramkumar Ramanathan defeated Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-4 in the penultimate round of the qualifying tournament.
Ankita Raina and top seeds men's doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan assured India of at least a couple of bronze medals in the tennis competition by progressing to the semifinals at the Asian Games, in Palembang, on Wednesday.
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Croatian partner Ivan Dodig advanced to the men's doubles pre-quarter-finals of the US Open with a three-set victory over the pair of Hugo Nys of Monaco and Arthur Rinderknech of France, in New York.
Indian tennis players' struggle at the Grand Slam events continued as both Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost their respective first round singles matches to make an exit from the US Open qualifiers.
Doubles star Sania Mirza returned to the Indian Fed Cup team after four years as she was named in the five-member squad, which features country's top singles player Ankita Raina. Sania last played Fed Cup in 2016 and has been out of action since October 2017 as she took a two-year break to start a family.
Izhaan is seen smiling adorably while his mum and her partner can barely contain their joy on stunning 6th seeds Krawczyk and Guarachi in the opening round of he Wimbledon doubles championships on Thursday.
Ramkumar Ramanathan advanced to the second round of the Wimbledon qualifiers but Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who was under-prepared due to a left-wrist injury, bowed out, in London, on Tuesday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, on Tuesday, September 26.
Coming into the do-or-die match, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes, with a combined age of 86, won 6-3, 6-7(9), 7-5 after two hours and 21 minutes against Pavic and Skugor, ranked 15 and 32 respectively.
Veteran Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna and his Croatian partner Franko Skugor advanced to the third round of the French Open with a straight sets win over Americans Frances Tiafo and Nicholas Monroe.
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