Sunitha Rao bows out

India's Sunitha Rao bowed out of the $ 170,000 WTA Pattaya Open in Thailand, going down in straight sets to Russian Ekaterina Bychkova in the second round on Thursday.

Sunitha, who made it through to the main draw of the Tier IV hardcourt event as a lucky loser, lost 4-6, 4-6. She had earlier defeated another lucky loser Japan's Junri Namigata 6-1, 6-4 in the opening round.

The Indian, who partnered Slovakian Andreja Klepac in the doubles, lost in the first round to the Russian combination of Anastasia and Arina Rodionova 4-6, 5-7 in the first round itself.

In the singles qualifying draw, Sunitha was seeded fourth and beat Nicha Lertpitaksinchai of Thailand 6-2, 6-0 and Greece's Starnatia Fafaliou 6-1, 6-1.

She lost in the final round of qualifying to eighth seeded Akiko Yonemura of Japan 1-6, 1-6 but got through as a lucky loser.

Another Indian trying to make it to the main rounds, Shikha Uberoi, beat German Anne Priska Schaefer 6-1, 6-0 but went down 2-6, 2-6 to China's Yi-Miao Zhou.