Vanshika Sawhney defeated the top seed Simran Kaur Sethi 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the girls’ quarterfinals of the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.
National sub-junior champion Vanshika handled the pressure well in both the second and third sets. Vanshika showed that she had come a long way since winning only two games against Simran in their only previous meeting a few years ago.
In the semifinals, Vanshika will play Karman Kaur Thandi, who defeated the fourth-seeded Nermeen Shawky of Egypt in straight sets. Karman got off to a whirlwind start to reach 5-0 and rode on the momentum by whipping her ground strokes to outclass her opponent.
Vasanti Shinde did the same thing to the third-seeded Habiba Lasheen of Egypt, as she raced through, dropping only five games.
The Mumbai left-hander will play the second-seeded Dhruthi Venugopal, who was too good for Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva of Uzbekistan.
In the boys’ section, Vidit Vaghela humbled Chak Pong Marco Lam of Hong Kong.
Paramveer Singh Bajwa beat qualifier Manav Pondkule in two tie-breaks. Vidit will play Paramveer in the semifinals, while the other match will feature the top-seeded Kennosuke Nouchi of Japan against Varis Yagudin of Russia.
The results:
Boys: Quarterfinals: Kennosuke Nouchi (Jpn) bt Aditya Deswal 6-4, 6-1; Varis Yagudin (Rus) bt Shrey Gupta 6-3, 6-4; Vidit Vaghela bt Chak Pong Marco Lam (Hkg) 6-3, 6-2; Paramveer Singh Bajwa bt Manav Podkule 7-6(1), 7-6(4).
Doubles: Semifinals: Kennosuke Nouchi (Jpn) & Alexey Prokopchuk (Ukr) bt B. R. Nikshep & Alex Solanki 5-7, 6-4, 12-10; Aditya Deswal & Deepak Vishavkarma bt Paramveer Singh Bajwa & Anurag Nenwani 6-4, 6-4.
Girls: Quarterfinals: Vanshika Sawhney bt Simran Kaur Sethi 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; Karman Kaur bt Nermeen Shawky (Egy) 6-2, 6-3; Vaanti Shinde bt Habiba Lasheen (Egy) 6-4, 6-1; Dhruthi Venugopal bt Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva (Uzb) 6-0, 6-3.
Doubles: Semifinals: Simran Kaur Sethi & Dhruthi Venugopal bt Yinglak Jittakoat (Tha) & Mihika Yadav 6-1, 6-1; Vasanti Shinde & Karman Kaur Thandi bt HImani Mor & Vanshika Sawhney 5-7, 6-2, 10-4.