Chennai, Sep 15 (IANS): India's Karman Kaur Thandi was knocked out of the women's singles event of the Chennai Open 2022 WTA 250 tennis tournament after losing to Canada's Eugenie Bouchard in pre-quarters at the SDAT Stadium, here on Wednesday.
The Indian tennis player, who beat eighth seed Chloe Paquet in the first round, lost 2-6, 6-7 to Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, the Wimbledon 2014 finalist.
Karman began well, with her powerful groundstrokes keeping Bouchard on her toes. The Indian, however, was unable to find the winners and was broken in the very first game. Bouchard quickly moved through the gears, aided by some unforced errors from Thandi, and took the opening set despite being broken once.
The 24-year-old Indian competed much better in the second set, matching the Canadian shot-for-shot. She managed a crucial breakthrough in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead and then consolidated it to 5-2 next game.
However, Eugenie Bouchard came roaring back to win the next three games and levelled things up. The set eventually moved to a tiebreak, where Bouchard's superior angles won her the match.
The Canadian will next face either fourth seed Tatjana Maria or Nadia Podoroska, both of whom are Grand Slam semi-finalists. On the other hand, Karman will now play in the doubles with fellow Indian Rutuja Bhosale.
Meanwhile, Ankita Raina and her partner Rosalie van der Hoek of the Netherlands were knocked out of the doubles after they lost 1-6, 4-6 to Anastasia Gasanova and Oksana Selekhmeteva.Ankita had earlier bowed out of the singles in the opening round after losing to Tatjana Maria of Germany.
Indian pair Riya Bhatia and Sharrmadaa Baluu also exited the doubles as they lost 2-6, 5-7 to Peangtarn Plipuech and Moyuka Uchijima.