Rushmi Chakravarthi of Tamil Nadu made her 10th entry into the final, in the National grasscourt tennis championships on Friday.
The 36-year-old winner of six National titles returned stronger against 18-year-old Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy of Andhra Pradesh after a nearly three hour long duel in the singles semifinals.
Rushmi will take on the last year’s finalist Natasha Palha of Goa in a bid to regain the women’s title she last won in 2012. Rushmi broke Sri Vaishnavi twice in the first set compared to one break gained by the latter and won the set 6-4.
The second set saw several breaks as both the players struggled with their service games. Sri Vaishnavi neutralised the set score, winning at 6-4. Sri Vaishnavi was nowhere in the decider as Rushmi raced to 4-1 before winning the set 6-3 and the match with it.
One-sided matchUnseeded Ashwin Vijayragavan of Andhra Pradesh was no match for third-seeded Vishnu Vardhan of Tamil Nadu in the men’s semifinals as the latter won 6-3, 6-2.
The results (semifinals):
Men: Singles: Vishnu Vardhan (TN) bt Ashwin Vijayragavan (AP) 6-3, 6-2, Mohit Mayur (TN) bt Chandril Sood (UP) 6-4, 3-0 (retd.). Doubles: Ronak Manuja (Mah) & Ashwin Vijaragavan (AP) bt Nitten Kirrtane (Mah) & S.K. Mukund (AP) 6-3, 6-2; N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth & Mohammad Fariz (TN) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (AP) & Mohit Mayur (TN) 6-2, 6-1.
Women: Singles: Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN) bt Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy (AP) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, Natasha Palha (Goa) bt Bhuvana Kalva (AP) 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. Doubles: Natasha Palha (Goa) & Nidhi Chilumula (AP) bt C. Sai Samitha (TN) & Amrita Mukherjee (Ben) 6-1, 6-3.
