Ankita Bhambri recovered well after a first set reverse to defeat Indonesian qualifier Maya Rosa 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the $10,00 ITF women's tennis tournament in Delhi on Tuesday.
Ranked 648 on the WTA circuit, Bhambri was up 4-3 in the first set but then played some loose points to allow the advantage slip.
But the 17-year Delhi player recovered in time to beat the 809-ranked Rosa in the first round at the DLTA Courts.
On a day when results held to form, Lisa Pereira did her best to stretch fourth seed Montinee Tangphong of Thailand before losing 3-6, 5-7.
Coming at the start of the season, this is one of the toughest tournaments held in the city for some time.
The depth of the field can be gauged from the fact that the 615-ranked Archana Venkataraman had booked her return ticket even before her match against the second seed Rushmi Chakravarthy. Archana lost 4-6, 3-6.
Third seed Megha Vakharia too had an easy outing, winning 6-1, 6-3 against Indonesian Septi Mende while sixth Sai Jayalakshmi had a more enviable scoreline, 6-0, 6-1, against Italian Lisa Tognetti.
Top seed Isha Lakhani packed off wild card Nandini Perumal 6-4, 6-1 while last week's winner at Hyderabad, Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia accounted for the other wild card, Parul Goswami 6-4, 6-3.
Other results,1st round (Indians unless specified):
Singles: Iciri Rai bt Geeta Manohar 6-2, 6-3; Giorgio Mortella (Ita) bt Minori Takemoto (Jpn) 6-1, 6-4; Oxana Lyubtsova (Ukr) bt Satomi Kinjo (Jpn) 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).
Doubles: Montinee Tangphong/Thassha Vityaviroj (Tha) bt Rushmi Chakravarthy/Sai Jayalakshmi 6-3, 6-3; Liza Pereira/Samrita Sekar bt Khushchehr Italia/Neha Rana 6-2, 6-2; Maya Rosa (Ina)/Yi Chen (Tpe) bt Isha Lakhani/Megha Vakharia 4-6, 6-4, 6-0; Sandy Gumulya/Septi Mende (Ina) bt Po-Kuen Lam (Hkg)/Sonal Phadke 6-2, 6-3; Satomi Kinjo/Tomoyo Takagishi (Jpn) bt Geeta Manohar/Archana Venkataraman 6-0, 6-2; Giorgia Mortella/Lisa Tognetti (Ita) bt Sheethal Goutham/Iciri Rai 6-3, 6-3; Ankita Bhambri/Shruti Dhawan bt Vishika Chhetri/Parul Goswami 6-4, 6-1; Wilawan Choptang (Tha)/Diana Julianto (Ina) bt I-Hsuan Hwang (Tpe)/Oxana Lyubtsova (Ukr) 7-5, 6-2.
