Sonal Phadke is lone Indian qualifier in ITF Women's Tennis tourney

Mumbai, Mar 18 (UNI) Sonal Phadke beat compatriot Punam Reddy 7-5, 6-4 in the final qualifying round, to become the lone Indian qualifier to make it to the main draw, in the ITF Women's 25,000 dollar Tennis Tournament at the Kalina University Campus, Santacruz here today.

Parija Maloo and Krushmi Chheda were the other Indians in contention, but both crashed out following straight sets defeats.

Japan's Misa Kinoshita beat Maloo 6-0, 6-4, while Wei-Ping Lee of Singapore overcame Chheda 6-2, 6-1.

The other qualifiers to join the elite in the main draw were Amber Liu (US), Martina Caciotti (Italy), Ji-Young Kim (Korea), Shao-Yuan Kao (Taipei) and Jeong-A Cho (Korea).

The main draw starts on Monday, March 19.

Top seed Shiho Isamatsu of Japan and No 2 Yan-Chong Chen of China will lead the challenge from overseas.

Third seed Sunitha Rao of the US received a wild card along with India's Prerana-Mythri Appineni and Parul Goswami and Uzbekistan's Nigora Sirojiddinova.

The other Indians in the main draw include Isha Lakhani, Tara Iyer, Rushmi Chakravarthi and siblings Ankita and Sanaa Bhambri.

Results (final qualifying round): Amber Liu (US) bt Kelsey Sundaram (US) 6-1, 6-1; Martina Caciotti (Ita) bt Mariana Muci-Torres (Ven) 7-6(2), 6-3; Ji-Young Kim (Kor) bt Morgan Basil (US) 6-0, 6-4; Shao-Yuan Kao (Tpe) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Sonal Phadke (Ind) bt Punam Reddy (Ind) 7-5, 6-4; Misa Kinoshita (Jpn) bt Parija Maloo (Ind) 6-0, 6-4; Wei-Ping Lee (Sing) bt Hae-Sung Kim (Kor) 6-4, 6-1; Jeong-A Cho (Kor) bt Krushmi Chheda (Ind) 6-2, 6-1.

UNI