Three Indians qualify for main draw

MUMBAI, Apr 3 (UNI) Top-seed Sonal Phadke, fourth-seed Tara Iyer and No.

7 Karishma Patel were the three Indians among the eight qualifiers, who advanced to the main draw following convincing straight sets win in the final qualifying round of the 10,000 dollar ITF Women's Tennis Tournament, here today.

Phadke set the ball rolling for the Indians with a 6-2, 6-2 win over compatriot and Asha Nandakumar.

Tara Iyer overcame Oormila Ram 6-1, 6-2 and Karishma Patel crushed Deepanwita Chakrabarty 6-2, 6-0.

The Indians who failed to make it were Liza Pereira, Pooja Kommireddi, Sheethal Goutham and wild card Amoolya Raghunath.

Second-seed Po-Kuen Lam of Hong Kong and No three Kavita Krishnamurthy of Canada were among the overseas players who made it to the main draw, which commences on Monday.

They were joined by No six Pichittra Thongdach of Thailand who ended Australian Andrea Lipovska's run with a fluent 6-0, 6-2 win.

Results: (Final qualifying round): Sonal Phadke (Ind) bt Asha Nandakumar (India) 6-2, 6-2; Po-Kuen Lam (HK) bt Amoolya Raghunath 6-0, 6-2; Kavitha Krishnamurthy (Can) bt Liza Pereira (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Tara Iyer (India) bt Oormila Ram (Ind) 6-1, 6-2; Julia Dziedzic (Aus) bt Pooja Kommireddi (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Pichitra Thongdach (Thai) bt Andrea Lipovska (Aus) 6-0, 6-2; Karishma Patel (Ind) bt Deepanwita Chakrabarty 6-2, 6-0; Mari Inque (Japan) bt Sheethal Goutham (Ind) 6-1, 6-1.