Nirupama-Kolbovic in quarters

Shailesh Soni

India's top ranked women's player Nirupama Vaidyanathan commenced the defence of her doubles title at the $50,000 Mahwah Challenger in New Jersey (USA) on a winning note.

She and partner Renata Kolbovic of Canada defeated Zuzana Lesenarova of the Czech Republic and Nicole Melch of Austria 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

The third seeded duo will face Jane Oakada of the United States and Ryoko Takemura of Japan in the quarterfinals. Oakada and Takemura defeated the American pair of Courtenay Chapman and Jacqueline Trail 6-3, 6-0 in the first round.

Nriupama won the doubles title last year in the company of Evie Dominikovic of Australia.

The tournament's top seeds are two of the Nirupama's former doubles partners -- Lisa McShea and Nana Miyagi.

In the singles, the Indian girl, who is seeded sixth, won her first round against Lisa McShea of Australia 6-0, 7-5. She now faces Sarah Taylor of the United States in the second round.

The Indian is currently ranked 155 on the WTA ranking, which is her highest ranking in over four years.

Nirupama is drawn in the same quarter of the draw as second seed Alina Jidkova of Russia. Janet Lee of Taiwan is the top seed.

In the juniors circuit, Karan Rastogi once again lost in the semi-finals, in the Grade-5 Carthago Cup in Tunisia.

The young Indian lost to Phodos Kallias of Cyprus. Earlier he repeated his upset over the second seed Fares Zaier of Tunisia in the second round 6-4, 6-4. In the quarter-finals he defeated David Luque of Spain 6-0, 6-2.

Earlier last week, Karan reached the semi-finals of the Grade-4 junior event in Tunisia. He earned 15 more points to move inside the top 240 on the rankings.

Rishi Behl, 15, ranked 488, went down in the second round to Tarek Ben Sultane of Tunisia, 1-6, 1-6.