Riya sends Druthi packing; Kanika ousts Prarthana
Unseeded Riya Bhatia ousted fourth seed Shruthi Tatachar in straights sets as other seeds cantered into the quarter-finals of the KUDA Kalaburagi ITF $10,000 Women’s Tennis tournament at the Chandrashekar Patil Stadium on Wednesday.
In a marathon contest that lasted 2 hours and 24 minutes, unseeded Kanika Vaidya rallied brilliantly to defeat fifth seed Prarthana Thombare in a grueling three-setter.
The fifth seed was broken in the very first game of the first set, but she proved her prowess by coming back strongly breaking the Singapore based Lass in the 4th and 6th games to wrap up the first set.
However, Kanika, who studies Medical Sciences at the University of Columbia, was not going down without a fight. The second set saw the two players trade serves. There were as many as 6 service breaks before the players held on to serves from 5-all to force the tie-breaker.
In the tie-breaker, Kanika clinched three points on the trot to take a 4-1 lead and again clinched three points in-a-row to level set scores.
The decider was a fast paced contest, with the players pushing themselves to hold serves. At 2-2, Thombare leading 30-15, committed two double faults and Kanika came up with a beauty of a forehand down the line to claim a break.
Thombare did her best, tried all the tricks in her bag to reclaim the break, but Kanika hung on grimly to move into the last eight.
She next takes on top seed Prerna Bhambri in the quarter-finals.
Riya played steady tennis while Dhruthi committed too many unforced errors to bow out.
Top seed Prerna Bhambri spent little time on court dispelling Dakshata 6-0, 6-2.
Other seeded players to move into the last eight were No 2 seed Natasha Palah, third seed Snehadevi Reddy, and No 6 Sharmadaa Baluu.
Results:Â Prefix denotes seeding:
Singles: Pre-quarter-finals: (All Indians unless mentioned): Tamachan Momkoonthod (Tha) bt Sai Samitha Chamarthi 6-3, 6-3, (2) Natasha Palah bt Plobrung (Tha) 6-2, 6-1; (3) Snehadevi Reddy bt Soha Sadiq 6-2, 6-1; Riya Bhatia bt (4) Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal 6-4, 6-2; (6) Sharmadaa Baluu bt Karman Kaur Thandi 6-3, 7-6 (5); (1) Prerna Bhambri bt Dakshata Girishkumar Patel 6-0, 6-2; Kanika Vaidya bt (5) Prarthana Thombare 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4; (8)Eetee Maheta bt Chun-Yan He (Chn) 6-0, 6-4.
Doubles:Â Quarter-finals: (4) Druthi Tatachar / Kamran Kaur bt Tamachan Momkoonthod /Plobrung Plipuech (Tha) 7-5, 7-5; (1) Sharmadaa Baluu / Natasha Palah bt Soha Sadia / Sahan Shetty 6-3, 6-0; (2) Shweta Rana / Snehadevi Reddy 6-0, 6-0; (3) Prerna Bhambri / Kanika Vaidya bt Sai Smahitha / Riya Bhatia 6-4, 6-2.
