Ramanathan, Raina enter pre quarterfinals; Rohan-Divij also win

India's singles specialists, including second seed Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina, made impressive starts to their campaign, progressing to the pre-quarterfinals of the tennis event at the 18th Asian Games here today.

Having got first-round byes yesterday, Indians had a busy day with matches in both singles and doubles.

Ramanathan, who reached the finals of the Hall of Fame Championships last month, won the first set 6-0 against Wong Hong Kit but was stretched by the Hong Kong player in the second set before getting past 7-6 (4) on a tie-break in a round of 32 matches.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran, the 28-year-old from Chennai, had it easy against Indonesia Rifqi M Fitriadi, winning 6-2, 6-0 to progress to the last 16.

India's first match of the day was of Ankita Raina, who beat Beatrice Gumulya 6-2, 6-4 in a round of 32 matches lasting almost two hours.

Then it was the turn of Karman Kaur Thandi who had little difficulty in getting past Mongolian Jargal Altansarnai, 6-1, 6-0.

In men's doubles, Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal, who formed a pairing at the last-minute, cleared the opening hurdle. They defeated Nepal's Abhishek Batola and Samrakshy Bajracharya 6-1, 6-1 to reach the round of 16.

However, there was a disappointment for India in the women's doubles as Rutuja Bhonsale and Pranjala Yadlapalli lost to Thailand's Peangtarn Plipuech and Nicha Lertpitaksinchai after winning the first set. They eventually went down 6-4, 3-6, 9-11.

Men's doubles top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan played their opening match in the pleasant evening weather.

The gold medal contenders had a straightforward outing against the Indonesian pairing of Ignatius Anthony Susanto and David Agung Susanto, winning 6-3, 6-3 in 53 minutes.

Tomorrow, Indians will be in action in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

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