Prarthana Thombare emphasised her utility as a quality doubles player by making the semifinals, in partnership with Tadeja Majeric of Slovenia, in the Delhi Open $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on Wednesday.
In doing so, the Asian Games doubles bronze medallist with Sania Mirza, emerged the only Indian woman still left in the draw, as Dhruthi Venugopal played well only in patches, losing to seventh seed Majeric of Slovenia 6-2, 6-4.
There was no doubting the fact that Dhruthi had done very well, not only to qualify but to reach the second round of the singles event, despite minimum exposure at this level. She was the only Indian girl to do so in such a strong field. Dhruthi had the game and the hunger for a fight, but lacked the experience and the understanding of court-craft to test a seasoned player of the calibre of Majeric.
Dhruthi had a fluent backhand that she could punch down the line or crosscourt at will, but did not employ them most of the time as she was not inclined to reach for the the ball to dictate the flow of the contest.
The results:Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Riko Sawayanagi (Jpn) bt Luksika Kumkhum (Tha) 7-6(5), 6-2; Olga Savchuk (Ukr) bt Valentyna Ivakhnenko (Rus) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5; Katy Dunne (GBR) bt Junri Namigata (Jpn) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3; Tadeja Majeric (Slo) bt Dhruthi Venugopal 6-2, 6-4; Yang Zhaoxuan (Chn) bt Ya-Hsuan Lee (Tpe) 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-0; Dalila Jakupovic (Sllo) bt Peangtarn Plipuech (Tha) 6-0, 4-6, 6-3; Cristina Ene (Rou) bt Tang Hao Chen (Chn) 6-0, 5-7, 6-1; Magda Linette (Pol) bt Miyu Kato (Jpn) 7-6(4), 6-1.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Ching-Wen Hsu & Pei-Chi Lee (Tpe) bt Ya-Hsuan Lee (Tpe) & Shweta Rana 6-2, 6-2; Tadeja Majeric (Slo) & Prarthana Thombare bt Conny Perrin (Sui) & Nidhi Chilumula 6-3, 5-7, 10-5; Valentyna Ivakhnenkko (Rus) & Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) bt Miyu Kato & Riko Sawayanagi (Jpn) 4-6, 6-3, 10-6; Tang Hao Chen & Yang Zhaoxuan (Chn) bt Magda Linette (Pol) & Zhang Ling (Hkg) 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-5.
