Tennis: Ankita Raina storms into final of ITF $25K tournament in Thailand

A week after winning the singles and doubles crown in Nonthaburi in the $25,000 ITF women’s event, Ankita Raina and her Dutch partner Bibiane Schoofs stormed into the women's doubles final of the W25 Nonthaburi, Thailand event as their opponent Romania's Nicoleta Dascălu and Switzerland's Simona Waltert is forced to retire during 1st set of the semi-final.

The Indo-Dutch pair was leading 4-1 in the first set after an injury led to the opponent pair retire. The Indian No. 1 female player in the singles circuit had a strong start to the season last week after she saw a double delight coming her way as she won the women’s singles title at the ITF Thailand Tennis 25K$ Championships event in Nonthaburi after defeating fourth-seed French Chloe Pacquet in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. Partnering with Schoofs, she had also beat the Thai wild card entrants Supapitch Kuearum and Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4, 6-2 to lift the doubles title.

Today, Ankita and her partner won 19 points compared to their opponents' 12 points before they retired. On their way to the semis, they had defeated Leonie Kung and Supapitch Kuearum in the quarters. On Saturday, Ankita and Schoofs will be playing their finals against Jia-Qi Kang and Miyabi Inoue. The match will begin at 9.30 AM IST.