Qualifier Archana Venkataraman caused a major upset when she defeated wild card and top seed Manisha Malhotra 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in the first round in the CCI-ITF $10,000 women's Futures tennis tournament at the CCI courts in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Archana, who started the match as the underdog, survived a gruelling contest to fashion one of the biggest victories in her fledgling career.
Manisha struggled from the start and was hampered by cramps in the latter half of the tie, which lasted two hours and 35 minutes.
Archana's receipe for success was simple -- keep the ball in play while her accomplished opponent went for winners and in the process lost crucial points.
Manisha's troubles were marked by seven double-faults and she dropped serve on an equal number of occasions.
After dropping the first set, Manisha utilised her experience to clinch the second and force the decider.
Much was expected of her in the final set but Manisha failed to even capitalise on the two double-faults by Archana.
Archana broke Manisha in the first, fifth, seventh and 11th games and held serve for the set and the match.
In other opening round matches, Geeta Manohar crushed Carly Homewood of Britain 6-1, 6-3 while seventh seed Radhika Tulpule overcame another Briton, Natalie Neri in straight sets 6-3, 6-0.
