New Delhi: India's no 1 tennis player Ankita Raina moved to quarter-finals in the women's singles of the ITF tournament in Luan, China on Thursday.Ranked 175, the Indian player won in straight sets 6-2 6-3 over her Chinese rival Yue Yuan in the round of 16.
Ankita was on a high after she beat three-time Grand Slam champion Samantha Stosur at the USD 125k tournament in Anning and also made the final of a 60k event in Istanbul. She next plays Hong Kong's Eudice Chong, who is ranked as low as 497.
She reached a ranking of world no 181 becoming the fifth Indian national in April 2018 to crack to the top-200 ladies singles rankings, following Nirupama Sanjeev, Sania Mirza, Shikha Uberoi, and Sunitha Rao.
In August 2018, Ankita won the bronze medal in the Asian Games at Jakarta, Indonesia in singles event. Raina and Sania Mirza are the only players representing India to have won a singles medal at the Asian Games.
She also peaked at world no 159 in the doubles rankings on August 28, 2017. Raina has also won gold medals in the women's singles and mixed-doubles events at the 2016 South Asian Games.(UNI)