Pune: Wildcard Salsa Aher gave a good account of herself before going down fighting to Nefisa Berberovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first round of qualifying in the 19th NECC Deccan ITF $25000 Women’s tennis tournament being played at the Deccan Gymkhana courts.
Seeded No 7, Nefisa wasted no time when she earned her first match point as the Bosinian blasted winning returns past the Pune girl Salsa Aher, beating the former junior national champion 7-5, 6-4.
As many as 14 Indian players were shown the door in the first round qualifying. Jennifer Luikham was the lone Indian to make it to the second round beating country-mate Aanisha Shewate 6-1, 6-3
In another tough qualifying Round 1 match, Valda Katic of Israel got past Ramya Natarajan 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.
