The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Rushmi enters final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 16, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Rushmi enters final

Nandakumar Marar

MUMBAI: Second-seeded Chin-Wei Chan of Chinese Taipei and sixth-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthy of India set up an expected singles final clash on Saturday in the $ 25,000 ITF women's tennis circuit event.

Chan, playing with plenty in reserve, cruised past Andrea Hlavackova in straight sets for her second back-to-back ITF final. Rushmi banked on experience to wriggle out of tight situations against fellow Indian Shruti Dhawan, winning Friday's semifinal 6-2, 7-5.

Chan is technically superior, Rushmi has nothing to lose after surviving three-setters in torrid humidity. The singles final may go all the way with the athletic Chan and the upright Rushmi relying on court-craft.

Rushmi, 27, ended qualifier Shruti Dhawan's run in an hour and 17 minutes, winning the big points which mattered. The first hint of the tide turning came in the fifth game of the third set, Shruti hitting a backhand down-the-line wide.

Another wild backhand from Shruti in the eighth game made it 4-4. Shruti, attempting to hit her way out of trouble, sensed a chance in the 11th at 5-5 on Rushmi's serve, but could not force the breakthrough.

The results:

Singles (semifinals): 2-Chin-Wei Chan (Tpe) bt Andrea Hlavackova (Cze) 6-1, 6-3; 6-Rushmi Chakravarthy (Ind) bt Shruti Dhawan (Ind) 6-2, 7-5.

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