The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Poojashree prevails

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Poojashree prevails

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The tenacious Poojashree Venkatesh fought her way past Isha Lakhani 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

It was a courageous performance by the 19-year-old Poojashree, supported by the GVK Group, as she recovered from two breaks down at 1-4 in the opening set.

Poojashree had to borrow racquets from the top-seeded Emily Webley-Smith when she broke her racquet string in the fourth game of the match.

She fought on borrowed racquets till her own returned after being strung to the tension of her choice.

Poojashree, serving increasingly well as the match progressed despite her second serve remaining a weak link, took the sting away from the fourth-seeded Isha by wearing her down with smart placements and change of pace.

Clever ploy

In fact, Poojashree did not give the pace for Isha who enjoys counter-punching and exasperated her by showing remarkable patience to stay in a point. To Isha’s credit, she rallied from the loss of four straight games to tilt the balance in her favour in the first set. However, she had to run that extra mile in the process and did not have the energy to battle on as the match entered the decisive third set.

Isha was unable to serve as well as she had done at the start of the match and got broken seven times in the second and third sets.

Though she broke the second-seeded Poojashree when the latter was serving for the match in the ninth game, Isha was broken right back at love in the next game.

Poojashree will challenge the champion of last week, Emily, in the final on Saturday.

Poojashree-Sanaa win

Poojashree, who returned for the doubles final with Sanaa Bhambri, defeated the wild card entrants Nova Patel and Rishika Sunkara for the loss of just three games.

The results:

Singles (semifinals): Emily Webley-Smith (GBr) bt Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2; Poojashree Venkatesh bt Isha Lakhani 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles (final): Sanaa Bhambri & Poojashree bt Nova Patel & Rishika Sunkara 6-2, 6-1.

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