Prarthana and Ankita advance

Ankita Raina the fifth seed and junior National champion Prarthana Thombare entered the semifinals of the Ashok Kheny ITF Bidar Open women Futures tennis championship here on Thursday.

While Ankita outlasted Varunya Wongteanchai of Thailand 6-4, 7-6(2), Prarthana was merciless in her 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Korea’s Ju Eum Kim.

At her dominant best, Prarthana gave very little chance for Kim to settle down. She won the first set at love and in the second despite a brief resistance from the Korean wrapped up the match at 6-2.

Ankita Raina started well against Varunya and took a 3-0 lead before the latter broke her in the seventh game (4-3) and went on to level at 4-all, Ankita hit back in the tenth game and won it at 6-4.

In the second set Ankita and Varunya traded breaks in the fourth and seventh games respectively and though Varunya took a 6-5 lead with a break in the eleventh game the Indian hit back in the twelfth game to made it 6-all. In the tie breaker there was no stopping Ankitha who raised to a 5-1 lead before winning at 7-2.

The results (quarterfinals): Prarthana Thombare bt Ju Eun Kim (Kor) 6-0, 6-2; Ankita Raina bt Varunya Wongtean Chai (Tha) 6-4,7-6 (2); Yumi Miyazaki (Jpn) bt Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) 6-2, 7-5; Wing Yau Venise Chan (HKG) bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-2, 1-6, 6-1.