Ankita Raina, India’s highest-ranked woman tennis player, suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final round of the Australian Open qualifiers being held in Dubai. She went down to Serbian teenager Olga Danilovic 2-6, 6-3, 1-6 in a topsy-turvy clash on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old started slow but bounced back in the second set and take the momentum in the decider. But Danilovic, ranked 183 in the world now but with a WTA title to her name, blazed through the third set to confirm her ticket for Melbourne.
Raina, ranked 180 in the world, had defeated Ukraine’s Katarina Zavatska 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in her previous round on Tuesday.
She was aiming to become just the third Indian to reach the women’s singles main draw of a Grand Slam. Only Nirupama Vaidyanathan and Sania Mirza have achieved that feat. Nirupama had reached the second round of the Australian Open in 1998 while Sania last competed in the singles category in 2012.
India’s challenge in the men’s singles qualifying had ended on Tuesday with Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran losing in the second round. Ramkumar lost to 3-6, 2-6 to Chinese Taipei’s Tung-Lin Wu in 69 minutes while Prajnesh went down in straight-set loss to Frenchman Constant Lestienne 2-6, 3-6.