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Wild card entrant Nirupama Sanjeev advanced into the second round at NECC-ITF Women's Tennis championships in Pune. Nirupama made an impressive comeback into professional tennis defeating Serbian qualifier Tamara Curovic by 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the first round.
Nirupama will now take on top seed and 111-ranked Tamarine Tanasugarn in $50,000 event. Tamarine Tanasugarn had crushed Rushmi Chakravarthi by 6-2, 6-0 in her 54 minutes first round encounter.
The other Indians in action, Poojashree Venkatesha and Sheethal Goutham also made it to the last 16 of the event.
Poojashree outplayed wildcard Rashmi Teltumbde by 6-2, 6-3, while Sheetal scraped past qualifier Shivika Burman by 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-4.
Nirupama played consistent tennis to outplay Curovic in 81 minutes. Nirupama said,"I'm happy to have made a comeback with a win and justified the organisers awarding me a wild card. I was tired after the first set, but my opponent's toilet break after the first set helped me to recover and finish off."
Nirupama led 5-4 having broken Curovic in the third game, but was broken back by Curovic in the tenth to level scores. Curovic then led 6-5, but Nirupama played some solid backhands and served consistently to hold on to her serve and force a tiebreak.
The 34-year old Nirupama proved too wily for the young Curovic in the tiebreak.A shattered Curovic surrendered a 2-0 lead in the second set as Nirupama broke back in the fourth game to restore parity and again in the eighth to win the set and the match.
