Ankita Raina loses to Evgeniya Rodina, bows out of French Open tennis qualifiers
May 23, 2018
India’s Ankita Raina crashed out of the French Open qualifiers with a 3-6, 6-7 defeat at the hands of Evgeniya Rodina of Russia in the women’s singles first round in Paris on Tuesday.
After losing the first set, Ankita came back strongly against her 10th seeded opponent and took the second to the tie-breaker which she eventually lost. The contest lasted one-hour 41 minutes.
“The quality of match was good, she (Ankita) played much better on clay than I thought. It was a close match, a matter of few points here and there,” said Ankita’s coach Hemant Bendre after the match.
“Ankita had the opponent totally in the second set but the loss of one game at 5-2 made her subdued so much that never after that she said come on to herself,” he explained.
Bendre said the first set was about nerves but Ankita got her rhythm in the second.
“In my opinion, she should have put more energy especially after winning a point and that was the main contributor for her loss,” he concluded.
Yesterday, Sumit Nagal lost to 10th seed Slovakian Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the men’s singles first round.
Yuki Bhambri has earned direct entry into the single’s main draw after breaking into top-100.
