Ankita Raina advanced to the quarterfinals with yet another easy victory but the singles challenge of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Rutuja Bhosale came to a halt at the Asian Games in Hangzhou (China) on Tuesday.
Raina, the top Indian singles player, cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Hong Kong’s Adithya P Karunaratne in the third round of the women’s singles event.
The Indian, ranked 198, converted all three breakpoints she got in the one hour 34-minute contest and saved two of the three breakpoints she faced against her 354th-ranked rival.
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She will now fight it out with Japan’s Haruka Kaji (ranked 213) for a place in the semifinals.
Ranked 336, Bhosale was up against high-ranked Alexandra Eala (190) from Philippines and went down fighting 6-7(5) 2-6 in one hour and 51 minutes.
In the men’s singles, Ramkumar took the court against world number 78 Yosuke
Watanuki and it was always going to be a tough contest for the Indian, who has been terribly out of form this season.
To his credit, Ramkumar stretched his superior Japanese rival, who had to battle hard for his 7-5 6-7(3) 7-5 win in two hours and 40 minute match.
Both Ramkumar and Bhosale are still alive in the doubles competitions.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI)