Chennai Open 2025: India’s top two Sahaja, Shrivalli score maiden WTA 250 wins

CHENNAI: After two rainy days, the sun shone brightly at the SDAT Stadium and so did India’s top-two ranked women – Sahaja Yamalapalli and Shrivalli Bhamidipaty – who both scored their first main WTA 250 main draw wins at the WTA Chennai Open 2025 on Wednesday.

Celebrating her 25th birthday in style, Yamalapalli scored a 6-4, 6-2 win over Indonesian lucky loser Priska Nugroho to set up a second-round showdown against third seed Donna Vekic. The Croatian, who is the reigning Olympic silver medallist, eased past India’s Vaishnavi Adkar 6-1, 6-2 in another first round encounter.

In the highly anticipated match between two of the biggest names in Indian women’s tennis, India No. 1 Shrivalli Bhamidipaty used her experience to defeat 16-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi 6-1, 6-4 and move into the round of 16. She will next meet seventh seed Kimberly Birrell, who needed three sets to overcome Czech Nikola Bartunkova 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Second seed Francesca Jones of Great Britain was forced to retire early in the third set of her first-round match against Japanese qualifier Mei Yamaguchi due to heat illness. Fifth seed Lucia Bronzetti was another seed to fall as she was knocked out by Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa 6-7, 6-0, 6-2.

Top seed Zeynep Sonmez scored a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 win over Tatiana Prozorova while fourth seed Janice Tjen, who has risen from outside the top 400 in January to her current ranking of No. 82 in the span of 10 months, scored a 6-5, 6-7, 6-2 win over German qualifier Caroline Werner to move into the second round as well. 2022 WTA Chennai Open champion Linda Fruhvirtova was among the early winners of the day as she got past French qualifier Astrid Lew Yan Foon 6-2, 6-2 and will take on Tjen next.

There was more reason to cheer for local fans as two all-Indian pairings advanced to the quarter-finals. Riya Bhatia/ Rutuja Bhosale upset third seeds Dalila Jakupovic/ Nika Radisic 6-2, 6-2 while wildcards Vaishnavi Adkar/ Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi defeated Amina Anshba/ Eden Silva 6-2, 1-6, 10-7.

All the second-round singles matches and the remaining first-round doubles matches will take place on Thursday.