Sunitha Rao is an Indian- American tennis player, born in October. She was born and bought up in America.
Early Life of Sunitha Rao
Sunitha Rao was born on October 27 in the year 1985 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She is a former American professional tennis player. Sunitha Rao has 8 career titles on the ITF Women`s Circuit and has reached 7 finals in singles. She has played on many WTA Tour events. Sunitha Rao was raised by parents Manohar and Savithri in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her family spoke Kannada language. Her parents are originally from Mangalore in Karnataka. Sunitha speaks Kannada. Her family now lives in Bradenton, Florida. Sunitha currently is staying in Boston, Massachusetts where she studies at Babson College
Career of Sunitha Rao
Sunitha Rao has played for India on the Fed Cup and 2008 Summer Olympics, and played for United States on all other occasions. Sunitha Rao played her first WTA match at the 2002 Brasil Open-Women`s Singles event, where she defeated Vanessa Henke in the first round. She was beaten by Anastasia Myskina in the second round. Sunitha Rao played at the Hansol Korea Open 2004 where she was beaten by Miho Saeki in the first round. Sunitha Rao participated at the Internationaux de Strasbourg 2005, but was overpowered by Iveta Benesova in the first round. Then she played at the Sunfeast Open where she beat Neha Uberoi in the first round before falling to Elena Likhovtseva. Sunitha Rao took part at the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic 2006, where she lost to Angelique Widjaja in the First Round. She also suffered a first round defeat at the 2007 Sunfeast Open to Nicole Pratt. Rao defeated Sandy Gumulya in the First Round of the Sunfeast Open to advance to the second round where she lost to Anne Keothavong. She then lost in the first round of the Bell Challenge to Alina Jidkova.
Later Career of Sunitha Rao
Sunitha Rao received an entry into the PTT Pattaya Open via a Lucky Loser spot. She beat Junri Namigata before losing to Ekaterina Bychkova. Then, at the Copa Colsanitas, she lost to Edina Gallovits in the first round. She received the best result of her WTA career at the 2008 DFS Classic in Birmingham. Sunitha Rao beat Petra Kvitova (who would be the future world no.2 and Wimbledon hit list) in the first round and Naomi Cavaday in the second before falling to Alona Bondarenko in the third round.
Partnership of Sunitha Rao
Sunitha Rao partnered with Sania Mirza, representing India in the women`s doubles event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. They got a walk-over in round one, but lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina of Russia in round two.
