Odisha duo Anaam Almas and Rutuparna Choudhury became doubles champion in the CGSTA All-India Women`s Ranking 50K Tennis Tournament, held at VIP Club, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) from January 22 to 26, 2018. They beat Andhra Pradesh-Gujarat combination of Likhita Landa and Prapti Dineshchand Soni in the final 6-3, 6-2.

This was Anaam`s second AITA women`s title and first for Rutuparna. Both the Odisha players also participated in the singles event, where Anaam reached semifinals before losing to A Kondavetti (AP) 2-6, 2-6. Rituparna bowed out from the second round, beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Shristi Das (Maharashtra).

Both Anaam and Rituparna earned six AITA doubles ranking point from this tournament, while Anaam gathered four more in singles. With these points, Anaam would become the new No 1 woman tennis player of Odisha, overtaking Shilpi Swarupa Das.

After the Raipur tournament, Anaam’s all-India ranking is expected to climb up from 91 to 70. Her total AITA ranking points till 15th January, 2018 was 13. Shilpi is currently ranked 85 with 14.5 points in her account.

Odisha now has only four among a total of 368 women tennis players with AITA singles ranking. Other two from the state are: Kalaga Bhargavi (Rank 270, Points 2) and Ankita Panda (Rank 328, Points 1). With two points from Raipur tournament, Rutuparna is expected to find a place for the first time in AITA women’s ranking list.
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PHOTO: AITA women’s doubles title winners Rutuparna Choudhury and Anaam Almas in Raipur on Jan 26, 2018.