Ankita advances to second round

Ankita Bhambri registered an easy win against Korea's Eun-Hye Cho in the first round of the USD 10,000 ITF Women's Circuit in New Delhi on Monday.

The sixth seed Indian defeated Cho 6-4, 6-1 without much effort at the DLTA Complex.

Other Indians who won their first round matches included Geeta Manohar, who overcame a first set deficit against Naoko Horikawa of Japan to record a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 win.

Sonal Phadke and wildcard Sanna Bhambri also advanced defeating their compatriots, Parul Goswami and Punam Reddy, a wildcard, respectively.

Phadke won 7-5, 6-3 against Goswami, who put up a good show, while Sanna earned a facile 6-1, 6-2 win against Reddy.

Another wildcard Sheethal Goutam lost to Thailand's Orawan Lamangthong 6-2, 6-4.

The field is depleted this time around with top players like Sania Mirza, Antonia Matic of Germany, Chin Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei and Stiffeny Stefen of New Zealand skipping the tournament to prepare for the Asian Championships in Tashkent this week.

In other matches of the day, second seed Aurelie Vedy of France defeated Australia's Cassandra Barr 6-1, 7-5, Rebecca Fong of Britain defeated Minori Takemoto and Tiffany Welford of Autralia defeated Yoo-Mi Jung of Korea.

The remaining first round matches will be played on Tuesday.

In doubles, Iciri Rai and Preeti Rao lost 1-6, 2-6 to Yi Chen and P Kuen Lam both of Hong Kong.