Saturday 27 / April / 2024
Muscat: Omani ace Fatma Al Nabhani teamed up with India’s Natasha Palha to enter the doubles quarterfinals of the ITF Women’s Pro Circuit $25,000 Hua Hin tournament in Thailand.
In a first round match, Fatma and her Indian partner Natasha overcame a first set deficit to overpower Chinese duo of Wei Zhanlan and Qiangian Zhao to move into the last eight.
The Indo-Oman pair lost the first set at 4-6 but fought back bravely to win the second and the ensuing match tie-break to advance with a 4-6, 6-3 (10-8) victory.
Fatma and Natasha will now take on another Chinese team of Lu Jia-Jing and Xun Fang Ying for a place in the semifinals.
Lu and Xun won their first round match by a 6-2, 7-6 (6) margin against Katharine Lehner of Philipphines and Irina Ramalson of France.
Fatma will start her singles campaign on Tuesday when she takes on Thai wildcard Noppawan Lertcheewakarn.
Early this month, Fatma took part in the $25,000 ITF Pro Circuit tournament in Guiyang, China where her campaign in the singles ended in the first round while in the doubles the Omani girl and her Russian partner Anastasia Gasanova exited in the quarterfinals.
Before that Fatma clinched the second place in a $10,000 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ITF Pro Circuit tournament in Spain, where she also reached the semifinals of the doubles competition in the company of Belgium’s Helene Scholsen.
