Tennis: Bautista Agut beats Safiullin in Barcelona
he Spaniard, who is chasing his 12th ATP Tour crown this week, will meet seventh seed Karen Khachanov in the second round.
India overpowered Korea 2-1 in their Billie Jean King Cup Women’s tennis Asia/Oceania Group I tie at the Moon Island Clay Park in Changsha, China on Friday.
Rutuja Bhosale won her singles match while the pair of Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare secured victory in the doubles rubber.
Bhosale, 379th in the world rankings, chalked out a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over world No. 301 Sohyun Park in one hour and five minutes.
Advertisement
The Indian won five games in a row in the first set to assert her dominance early on.
World No. 255 Ankita Raina failed to get past world no. 241 Sujeong Jang. She lost 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 30 minutes.
However, Raina, along with Prarthana Thombare, won the doubles fixture 6-4, 6-4 against Dabin Kim and Sohyun Park in one hour and 33 minutes.
The 2-1 win over South Korea was India’s third victory in the Asia/Oceania Group I.
The team blanked Pacific Oceania 3-0 in their opener and had beaten Chinese Taipei 2-1 on Thursday.
India’s only loss came against table-toppers China, where they slumped to a 0-3 defeat.
India are currently second in Pool A with three wins and one loss. They will need to finish in the top two to earn qualification to the play-offs while a bottom-two finish in the six-team group will see them relegated to Group II for next season.
India will take on New Zealand in their final group match on Saturday.
New Zealand are fourth in the table with two wins and two losses.
Advertisement
