Ankita Raina did a world of good to her sagging confidence as she outplayed the top-seeded Anja Prislan of Slovenia 6-0, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the ONGC $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.
On another warm and windy day, former national champion Ankita played her shots freely and hit a few sparkling backhand down the line winners, to overwhelm her strongly-built opponent.
Anja, on the other hand, was erratic and was unable to capitalise on her big serve and crafty backhand slice, as she was lethargic in her movements and slipped into a flurry of errors.
After conceding an early break in the second set, Anja looked to be fighting her way back when she made it 4-4, but the 19-year-old Ankita closed out the match without any fuss. She will meet the reigning national champion Rutuja Bhosale in the semifinals.
Former Asian junior champion, the wiry Rutuja played an effective game without over-stretching herself even as her opponent, the fourth-seeded Nidhi Chilumula allowed alarming swings in the quality of her strokes.
Prerna Bhambri recovered from a spot of bother in the second set when she trailed 0-4 to outclass Katherine Ip of Hong Kong in straight sets.
The third-seeded Prerna will be up against the second-seeded Mari Tanaka of Japan who stopped the champion of a similar event at the venue, Rishika Sunkara, for the loss of five games.
The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Ankita Raina bt Anja Prislan (Slo) 6-0, 6-4; Rutuja Bhosale bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-2, 6-4; Prerna Bhambri bt Katerine Ip (Hkg) 6-2, 6-4; Mari Tanaka (Jpn) bt Rishika Sunkara 6-4, 6-1.
Doubles (semifinals): Ester Masuri (Isr) and Naomi Totka (Hun) bt Riya Bhatia and Adnya Naik 3-6, 7-6(5), 12-10; Aishwarya Agrawal and Ankita Raina bt Shweta Rana and Prarthana Thombare 6-4, 6-3.
Keywords: ITF women's tennis tournament
