The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Tara enters semifinals

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Friday, Aug 31, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Tara enters semifinals

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Tara Iyer worked her way past Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

On a day when the top-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi and Isha Lakhani went out without a fight, Tara kept the Indian hopes alive along with Ankita Bhambri.

After racing away with the first set, Tara found herself in a spot of bother when she lost the second set despite bouncing back from 1-4 to 4-4.

In the decider, Tara opened well with a break of serve in the first game, but lost her serve in the very next game.

Tara raced to a 5-2 lead but could not close out the match in the eighth game as she uncharacteristically dropped serve at love.

The Thai girl came up with a last-ditch effort as she saved three match points from 0-40 in the ninth game, hitting three spectacular winners in a row including one on serve.

Tara, capitalised on her fourth match point and forced the Thai to hit a backhand long.

In the semifinals, Tara will meet Nungnadda Wannasuk.

The second-seeded Tangphong had pulled out with a back injury on Wednesday itself. Rushmi continued to find qualifier Kyung-Yee Chae a tough nut to crack and lost to her for the second time in successive weeks.

The 29-year-old Rushmi was unable to hit with her usual flair on the fast courts as she was slow to the ball, and the Korean left-hander was far too crafty and consistent while scripting a 6-2, 6-1 win.

Ankita proved too good for the fourth-seeded Isha Lakhani and raced to victory 6-2, 6-1.

It was the 11th win in 13 international meetings for Ankita against Isha.

The gutsy Isha lost her cool early in the match as she could not get a grip over the proceedings and was lucky to get away without being fined for a torrent of abuse that was mainly directed at her own incompetent display.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Kyung-Yee Chae (Kor) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-2, 6-1; Ankita Bhambri bt Isha Lakhani 6-2, 6-1.

Tara Iyer bt Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) w/o. Montinee Tangphong (Tha).

Doubles (semifinals): Sophia Mulsap-Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) bt Ankita-Sanaa Bhambri 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.