It was a dismal day for Indians at the Bangalore Open, a US $175,000 Sony Ericsson WTA Tier-III event, all the six aspirants playing in the qualifying rounds were eliminated.

Akshita Raj, Punam Reddy, Parul Goswamy, G K Shwetha, Megha Vakharia and Sandhya Nagaraj lost in the first round of the qualifying phase at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association courts on Saturday.

Akshita lost to Shiho Hisamatsu (Japan [Images]) 1-6, 0-6; Parul lost to Kyra Nagy (Hungary) 3-6, 1-6 and Sandhya lost to Ryoko Fuda (Japan) 4-6, 0-6.

Aleksandra Wozniak (Canada [Images]) overcame a tough challenge from Punam before notching a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory, while Napaporn Tongsalee (Thailand) sidelined Shwetha 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.

Megha, trailing 0-2 in the first set, slipped and sprained her ankle and conceded the match to Katarina Kachlikova (Slovakia).

The main draw commences on Monday.

World number 32 Sania Mirza [Images] is the defending champion and top seed. The other three Indians in the fray are Ankita Bhambri, Rushmi Chakravarthy and Isha Lakhani; all have been given wild cards.

The event has attracted 10 players in the top 100 list, including Sania.

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