MUMBAI, February 23: Archana Venkatraman made a sparkling debut in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour by upsetting seventh seed Kelly Liggan (Ireland) 6-4, 7-5 in the $10,000 American Express ITF Women's Circuit today.Joining Archana in the second round at the Cooperage Tennis Centre were the other two Indians, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Jahnavi Parekh. Rushmi (ranked 682 in the world) coasted to an effortless 6-3, 6-0 win over Ukraine's Irena Nossenko (675), while Jahnavi (721) dropped a set point before achieving a three-set win over Ding Ding (China) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
Second seed Abigail Tordoff (Britain) scored a hard-fought 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Austria's Nicole Melch, who played better than her ranking -- 647 -- suggests.
The 19-year-old Archana, who lost in the qualifying rounds of her first WTA tournament in 1995 at Brunei, played ``one of her best matches'' today. Coming into the tournament as a wild card after Uzma Khan pulled out, Archana dropped two match points in the second set beforeclosing the match in an hour and 50 minutes.
After trading breaks in the seventh and eighth games in the opening set, Archana -- battling a cough bout -- broke though in ninth. In the 10th game, a forehand cross winner gave the Indian set point and then clinched the set when Ligga overhit a forehand.
The second set saw as many as seven breaks -- Liggan broke through in the second, eighth and 10th while the Indian secured breaks in the fifth, seventh, ninth and 11th. Though Liggan began strongly in the set, her inconsistent serving let her down badly. She committed six double faults in the set to give a helping hand to the Indian's cause. ``A throat infection has made things difficult because I seemed to lose out on stamina,'' Archana said, after she qualified for the doubles main draw with her sister Arthi.
JAHNAVI UP: Jahanvi, one of the two Indian direct entries, beat Ding in a little less than two hours. After taking the first set, 20-year-old Jahnavi was trailing 5-6 in the second and servingto save the match. Ding, however, managed to save game points and then Jahnavi helped the Chinese along with a double fault at set point for the scores to go level at one set apiece.
The Mumbai girl, however, ``stayed cool'' to make amends by finishing the decider quickly at 6-2.
RESULTS (1st round)
Abigail Tordoff (GBR, ranking 369) bt Nicole Melch (Aut, 647) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Naomi Urabe (Jap, 450) bt Tina Parits (Aut, 1009) 6-4, 6-3; Jahnavi Parekh (Ind, 721) bt Ding Ding (Chn, 665) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2; Nicole Remis (Aut, 425) bt Li Ting (Chn, 701) 6-4, 6-2; Archana Venkatraman (Ind) bt Kelly Liggan (Irl, 543) 6-4, 7-5; Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind, 682) bt Irena Nossenko (Ukr, 675) 6-3, 6-0; Julia Adlbrecht (Aut, 684) bt Ayami Takase (Jap, 593) 6-4, 6-2; Diane Asensio (Sui, 749) bt Monique le Sueur (RSA, 898) 6-4, 6-4.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
