Chennai Open 2022: Eugenie Bouchard into quarter-finals after ending local star Karman Thandi’s hopes

Indian wildcard Karman Kaur Thandi lost in the second round of Chennai Open 2022 WTA 250 tournament to former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard of Canada. Karman came up with a stiff fight but it was not enough to stop the former World No. 5 in Chennai.

Karman Kaur Thandi got the backing of the home crowd as she recovered from a 2-6 scoreline in he first set to have as many as 2 set points at 5-3 in the second set. However, Karman was not able to close out the match, eventually crashing out after a tie-breaker in the second set.

With Karman’s exit, India’s singles challenge at the WTA 250 tournament in Chennai came to an end. India’s No. 1 Ankita Raina was knocked out by Wimbledon 2022 semi-finalist and 4th seed Tatjana Maria in their first-round match on Tuesday.

Karman upped the ante in the second set and nearly forced a decider, but the 24-year-old Indian was not able to match the intensity and looked fatigued against Bouchard, who is on a comeback run after slipping to 902 on the WTA charts.

Karman had stunned 8th seed Chloe Pacquet in the first round to spark hopes and got the backing of the Chennai crowd.

Speaking after the match, Bouchard said, “It was fun to play even though the crowd was cheering for her (Thandi).”

Asked how the comeback was going, the Canadian said, “Look…It is one small step at a time.”

Meanwhile, two seeded players crashed out in the round of 16. While Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson, the fifth seed, went down in straight sets (4-6, 2-6) to the Czech Republic’s Linda Fruhvirtova, No.6 seed Qian Wang was beaten in straight sets by Nao Hibino of Japan, a qualifier.

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