Sunitha Rao, seeded fifth, defeated American opponent Alexis Prousis 6-0, 6-2 comfortably and made a place for herself in the pre-quarterfinals of the Gujarat NRE Coke $50,000 ITF women's Challenger at the BTA Complex.

However, Shikha Uberoi disappointed all by loosing against seventh seed Ksenia Palkina of Kazakhstan 6-2 6-3.

The other achievements at the tournament were the entry of top seeded Melanie South (Great Britain) and second seeded Ayumi Morita (Japan) into the next round.

Meanwhile, third seeded Chin-Wei Chan of Chinese Taipei and sixth seeded Liana-Gabriela Ungur of Romania, suffered a set back with the first loosing to Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovanovski 6-1 6-2 and the other hurting herself after losing the first set to Leonie Mekel.

With Rao taking on Emily Webley-Smith of Britain and Sanaa Bhambri playing Japanese Ayumi Morita in the pre-quarter finals, tennis fans can look forward to some exiting matches.