Tennis: Ankita Raina wins her second singles title of 2019 in Solapur

India No.1 and second seed Ankita Raina wins her second singles title of 2019 by defeating 5th seed Naiktha Bains of Great Britain 6-3 6-3 in the final of the $25K ITF event in Solapur, Maharashtra on Sunday. Earlier on Saturday, Raina paired up with Norway's Ulrikke Eikeri to be crowned women's doubles champion in the same event, defeating Turkey's Berfu Cengiz and Greece's Despina Papamichail for a 5-7, 6-4, 10-3.

Ankita eased past her Great Britain opponent to gain the double delight after tomorrow. She started off her campaign at the tournament defeating Ukraine's Valeriya Strakhova 6-3, 6-0 in the Round of 32. She set up a Round of 16 clash with her Indian compatriot Riya Bhatia, whom she defeated 6-3, 6-4. Raina went on to have a tough competition in the quarters where she met Egypt's Sandra Samir. After going down in the first set, Ankita pulled off a brilliant comeback to register a 1-6, 6-4, 6-1. In the semi-final, Raina beat Britain's Katie Boulter 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

However, the Indian challenge at the Asia-Oceania Australian Open wild card play-off came to an end on Friday with Sasi Kumar Mukund’s quarter-final loss in Zhuhai, China. The seventh seed went down 4-6, 3-6 to Yun-Seong Chung of Korea.

He was the last Indian in the draw after Ramkumar Ramanathan lost in both singles and doubles on Thursday. Seeded third, Ramkumar was beaten 6-3, 6-0 by Ze Zhang of China in his opener in the singles. In the doubles quarter-finals, he and partner Arjun Kadhe went down in a close super tie-break. After a bye in the first round, they lost 6-3, 3-6, 13-11.