The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ankita breezes past Megha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 27, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Ankita breezes past Megha

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: It was expected to be an exciting contest but the second-seeded Ankita Bhambri made it a mismatch as she outplayed Megha Vakharia 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

Starting on a safe note, the Delhi girl was content to hit down the middle rather than go for the lines. But she stepped up the pace and found the angles to trouble the Mumbai left-hander.

Playing well only in patches, the 21-year-old Megha struggled to hold serve and Ankita won nine games on the trot from 2-2 in the first set. Megha eventually held serve in the sixth game of the second set, but Ankita had found her groove by then.

Ankita will take on another left-hander from Mumbai, the national hard court champion, Isha Lakhani.

The gutsy Isha recovered from being 1-4 and 3-5 down in the first set to overwhelm qualifier Nadine Fahoum of Israel in straight sets.

Hitting stinging shots on either flank and moving about the court briskly for some deft placements as well, Isha called the shots even when she was down 0-40 at 6-5 in the first set in exasperating the Israeli lass.

Nadine, who has been competing in the ITF junior circuit in India for the last three weeks, was no match for Isha eventually and was easily put in her place in the second set when the Mumbai lass hardly put a foot wrong.

Palkina through

In the other quarterfinals, Ksenia Palkina downed her doubles partner Nicole Clerico for the loss of six games, while Czarina Mae Arevalo of Philippines continued to emphasise her sound strokes and a stout heart with another come back from behind victory in three sets over the fourth-seeded Nudnida Luangnam of Thailand.

Czarina converted the fourth breakpoint in the seventh game of the decider and then out-hit her Thai rival with poise and flourish in the duel that crossed the two-hour mark.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Ksenia Palkina (Kgz) bt Nicole Clerico (Ita) 6-4, 6-2; Czarina Mae Arevalo (Phi) bt Nudnida Luangnam (Tha) 5-7, 6-4, 6-3; Isha Lakhani bt Nadine Fahoum (Isr) 7-5, 6-1; Ankita Bhambri bt Megha Vakharia 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles (semifinals): Ankita Bhambri and Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Nudnida Luangnam (Tha) and Archana Venkataraman 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; Nicole Clerico (Ita) and Ksenia Palkina (Kgz) bt Paarul Goswami and Geeta Manohar 6-3, 6-1.

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