Third seed Megha Vakharia was shocked by Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia 5-7, 0-6 in the first round of the ITF US $10,000 women's tennis tournament which began at the LB Stadium Tennis complex at Hyderabad on Monday.
Megha could not subdue the highly spirited Sandy in the first set with the Indian's returns crashing into the nets when it mattered most and the Indonesian wriggled out of a tense situation to win at 7-5.
Crestfallen Megha could not return to the winning mould and surrendered, rather meekly, as Sandy blanked the third seed to register the first upset of the day.
In the other matches, Shruti Dhawan brushed aside Sheethal Goutham in straight sets while Iciri Rai made light of the little challenge of Meghana Paritala to move into the next round without shedding much of her energies.
Doubles event turned out to be a tame affair with the exception of Rushmi Chakraborthy and Sai Jayalakshmi sweating it out to beat Satomi Kinjo and Tomoyo Takagishi (Japan) 6-1, 7-6 (5).
Iciri Rai and Minori Takemoto paired well to trounce Geeta Manohar and Archana Venkataraman 6-4, 6-3 in a match which was stretched by a few notches in the evening session.
Following is the first day results:
Singles: Iciri Rai(Ind) bt Meghana Paritala(Ind) 6-4, 6-1, Megha Vakharia(Ind) lost to Sandy Gumulya(Indonesia) 7-5, 0-6, Shruti Dhawan bt Sheetal Goutham(both India) 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles: Rushmi Chakarborty and Sai Jayalakshmi bt Stomi Kinjo and Tomoyo Takagishi 6-1, 7-6(5), Yi Chen and Maya Rosa bt Sandhya Nagaraj and Nandini Perumal 6-0, 6-0, Lata Assudani and Rati Kumar bt Afreen Jahan and Sandra Sasidharan 6-4, 6-2, Irici Rai and Minori Takemoto bt Geeta manohar and Archana Venkataraman 6-4, 6-3.
