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Rushmi, Sania and Shruti progress

NEW DELHI OCT. 2. The second-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi defeated Montinee Tangphong of Thailand 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 to move into the quarterfinals of the $ 10,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday.

While Rushmi, confident following her quarterfinal appearance in the $ 25,000 Challenger in Lebanon, takes on qualifier Meng Yuan of China, two other Indian girls, the top-seeded Sania Mirza and Shruti Dhawan, also made the last eight stage.

The 402nd-ranked Sania beat Novianti Warsono of Indonesia 6-2, 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal with Wilawan Choptang of Thailand.

Brushing aside her indifferent form at home this season, Shruti continued her good work in the tournament as she beat the 593rd-ranked Diana Julianto of Indonesia 6-3, 6-4 to make the quarterfinals. She will meet Septi Mende of Indonesia.

Two other Indian girls, seeded third and sixth, crashed out. The third-seeded Isha Lakhani went down 2-6, 3-6 to Wukirasih Sawondari of Indonesia while the sixth-seeded Sonal Phadke lost to Septi Mendi 4-6, 2-6.

In doubles, the top-seeded Rushmi and Sania recovered from a bad start to tame Montinee Tangphong and Thassha Vitayaviroj of Thailand 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The duo will meet another Indian pair — Isha and Sonal — in the quarterfinals.

Samrita Sekar and Orawan Lamangthong of Thailand won 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) against wildcard entrants Golda Rubina and Lavinia Tananta of Indonesia in the first round. The Indo-Thai pair will meet another Indo-Thai combination, the second-seeded Shruti Dhawan and Wilawan Choptang in the quarterfinals.

Liza Pereira and Naoko Horikawa of Japan were seeded third, but the duo failed to win a game against Sandy Gumulya and Wukirasih Sawondari of Indonesia in the first round.

Sumit-Vivek in final: The third-seeded Sumit Prakash Gupta and Vivek Shokeen beat the second-seeded Peerakit Siributwong of Thailand and N. S. Nishendiran of Sri Lanka 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the doubles semifinals of the ITF junior tennis tournament in Islamabad on Thursday.

However, another Indian pair of Lalit Mann and Sandeep Kumar lost 3-6, 2-6 to the fourth-seeded Shahzad Khan and Wasif Cheema of Pakistan in the other semifinals, on a day when the action was restricted to doubles in the tournament.

In the girls' doubles semifinals, the top-seeded G. K. Shweta and Poojashree Venkatesh beat Saba Aziz of Pakistan and Puja Paul 6-0, 6-1 in a draw of eight that had only six teams.

In the other semifinal, the second-seeded Punjaporn Ditthim and Punchanik Khunpitak of Thailand prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 over Nungnudda Wannasuk of Thailand and Daksha Mullay.

In the boys' singles semifinals to be played on Friday, the top-seeded Rupesh Roy will meet the third-seeded Shahzad Khan of Pakistan and the second-seeded Sumit Gupta will clash with the seventh-seeded Vivek Shokeen.

Shivang in doubles quarterfinals: Shivang Mishra and Olivier Charron of France reached the doubles quarterfinals of the $ 15,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament in Nevers, France. The Indo-French combination was leading 7-6 (7-3), 1-0 when the opponents, wildcard entrants Olivier Malcor and Nicolas Renavand, retired.

In the quarterfinals, Shivang and Charron will meet the third-seeded Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Minar of the Czech Republic.

In the singles qualifying event, Shivang lost 3-6, 0-6 to Gero Kretschmer of Germany in the first round.

Indian lads struggle: Three Indians failed to make much of an impact in the $ 10,000 Futures tennis tournament at Kigali, Rwanda.

Saurabh Singh lost 4-6, 3-6 to qualifier Robert Hodel of Romania in the first round. His coach from Chandigarh, Robin Kumar, failed to win a game in his first round against the top-seeded Wesley Whitehouse of South Africa.

In the qualifying event, Prabhjit Singh lost to Adrian Rowe of Australia 2-6, 1-6 in the first round.

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