Janaki-Pooja managed to get past Karishma Patel and Nikita Bhardwaj in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, while the Trishna and Tara prevailed over Kasturi Bhat and Nona Wagh 6-4, 6-3.

The encounter between Janaki-Pooja and Karishma-Nikita pairs provided some fireworks from the baseline. In the first set, both the pairs were going neck and neck till the third game and ultimately Janaki-Pooja, who broke in the fourth game and later in the sixth game, won at 6-3.

The second set saw Karishma-Nikita with superb ground strokes and long rallies break in the second and third games to level the score at 3-3 each. However, in the ninth game, Janaki-Pooja hit back to break for the lead and to claim the set and tie in their favour at 6-4.

The foreign challenge in this leg has been very thin and limited tothree with two Thailand girls Motika Anuchan and Orawan Wongkamlasai along with a sole Russian Anna Eugeni Nefedova ranked 731 in the world. The hosts Deccan Gyymkhana had to scrap the qualifying due to lack of entries. Out of the total 25 direct entries only 24 reported plus the eight qualifiers which made the main draw of 32.

The local challenge however ended as Vinita Dixit and Kasturi Bhat bowed out in the opening round itself. Vinita a final year B Com student of BMCC College went down fighting against country mate Deepa Engade of Aurangabad 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 and Bhat could not match the explosive Montika Anuchan of Thailand before losing 1-6, 2-6. Archana a final year B Com student Of Vijaya College, Bangalore who lost to Shruti Dhawan in first leg due to ill health was in fine fettle needing two breaks to wrap up the first set 6-1.

Versha Reddy a top India junior put up a game fight in the second and took two games before going down 2-6. Her elder sister Arthi seeded sixth had to wage a grim battlebefore getting the better off a resolute Tara Kambargimath also of Bangalore. Arthi broke her rival to lead 5-3 in the first set but immediately dropped her serve but bounced back to break Tara in the 8th game to clinch the first set 6-4. The second set also was a repeat of the first as the rivals were levelled at 4-4 games all. Arthi who played some brillant forehand winners broke the rival in the ninth game to romp home 6-4.

RESULTS

Doubles: Gautam Sheetal/ Shruti Dhawan (Ind) bt Vadahi Kameshwari/ Tarminder Grover (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Shaini Thakur/ Jutika Chokshi (Ind) bt Snal Marker/ Shivani Bhat (Ind) 6-0, 6-0; Janaki Krishnamurthy/ Pooja Deshmukh (Ind) bt Kashmira Patel/ Nikita Bhardwaj 6-3, 6-4; Trishna Williams/ S K Tara (Ind) bt Kasturi Bhat/ Nonita Wagh (Ind) 6-4, 6-3.