Oman’s Fatma Al Nabhani suffers singles defeat in Thailand

Muscat: Oman’s star tennis player Fatma Al Nabhani suffered defeat in the first round of the ITF Women’s Pro Circuit $25,000 Hua Hin tournament in Thailand on Tuesday.
The Omani girl, who on Monday reached the doubles quarterfinals in the company of India’s Natasha Palha, came up against a brave local lass Noppawan Lertcheewakan who fought her way back from a one set deficit to hand a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Fatma.
Fatma and Natasha will play their doubles quarterfinals match against Chinese team of Lu Jia-Jing and Xun Fang Ying.
The Indo-Oman pair had reached the last eight stage after defeating China’s Wei Zhanlan and Qiangian Zhao 4-6, 6-3 (10-8).
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.