Oman’s Fatma Al Nabhani suffers singles defeat in China

Muscat: A day after storming into the doubles quarterfinals, Omani star tennis player Fatma Al Nabhani failed to clear the first hurdle in the singles competition of the $25,000 ITF Pro Circuit tournament in Guiyang, China on Wednesday.
According to information received here, sixth seeded Fatma came up against a strong Chinese girl Xinyu Gao.
Though the Omani girls put up good fight in the first set, she failed to maintain her form in the second as Xinyu Gao went on to win the match in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.
Fatma will however continue her doubles campaign in the company of Anastasia Gasanova of Russia.
Fatma and Anastasia are scheduled to play in the quarterfinals on Thursday when they clash with the Chinese pair of Hanyu Gao and Yukun Zhang.
They reached their last eight stage after defeating Thailand’s Kamonwan Buayam and China’s Fang Ying Xun 7-6 (5), 2-6 (10-4) on Tuesday.
Hanyu Guo and Yukun Zhang entered the quarterfinals after defeating their Chinese compatriots Xiao Chen Fu and Wanyu Tang 6-0, 6-0.
The Omani girl has recently won 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.