Ankita Raina loses to Aliona Bolsova in Australian Open warm-up tournament
Raina, awaiting her fate at the Australian Open, is looking to make the most of her time in Melbourne
Ankita Raina lost 3-6, 0-6 in straight sets to Spain's Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov in the first round of the Yarra Valley Classic, a warm-up tournament to the year's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open.
This is the second consecutive time Raina lost to Bolsova as she had previously lost 7-5, 6-2 in an opening round match at the 2020 Tyler ITF competition in October 2020.
The Indian had been the first one to secure a break of serve. She smacked a forehand down the line winner to earn the break and go 3-2 up in the opening set. But Raina lost 10 games in a row after that to bow out of singles in the WTA 500 event.
Bolsova holds a better career-best ranking of 88, in comparison to Raina's 160th.
Meanwhile, Raina paired up with her Dutch partner Rosalie Van Der Hoek to defeat Alison Van Uytvanck and Cornelia Lister 7-6, 6-4 and advance to the Round of 16. They will take on Japanese third seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in the next match.
The 28-year-old, earlier, missed out on qualifying for the Australian Open main draw as she lost to Olga Danilovic in the third round. She, however, travelled to Melbourne as one of the six lucky losers.
Raina, meanwhile, got a chance to participate at the warm-up event as she was a part of the bio-bubble. The Ahmedabad-born player is yet to deliver her best performance in the post-pandemic period as she had only progressed to the second round in the ITF $25,000 event in Prague.