Unseeded Amrita Mukherjee of Bengal joined the elite company of seeded heavyweights in the women's semifinals of the Indian Jute National grass-court tennis championships at the South Club.
Apart from Amrita, for whom it was a maiden entry into the semifinals of a senior event, the rest of the women's quarterfinal matches on Thursday saw the hierarchy of the seeds establishing their dominance.
Beginning with the 2009 champion and second-seeded Ankita Raina of Gujarat, the order of seeds making it to the last four included five-time National champion and third-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi of Tamil Nadu. Fourth-seeded Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy of Andhra Pradesh completed the sequence with Amrita being the sole outsider in the contest for the title round.
Amrita, whose best so far has been reaching the final of an ITF junior event in Guwahati last year, commendably utilised the opening in the top quarter of the draw created by the early exit of seeds owing to injury.
With top-seeded Shivika Burman and sixth-seeded Garima Vatwani retiring with injuries, 17-year-old Amrita easily won against unseeded opponents in the last two rounds — where she beat wildcard Smriti Joon of Haryana in the pre-quarterfinals before downing qualifier Vaniya Dangwal 6-4, 6-4.
Amrita will face her first big test when she takes on Rushmi Chakravarthi. The other semifinal will have Ankita taking on 16-year-old Sri Vaishnavi, who drubbed qualifier Nupur Kaul 6-2, 6-0.
The men's quarterfinals saw top-seeded Saketh Myneni of Andhra Pradesh leading the march of the seeds to the last-four stage. Second-seeded Suresh Krishna, also of Andhra Pradesh, had the toughest time among the successful seeds when he had to erase a set's deficit before beating Shahbaaz Khan of Maharashtra in a marathon three-setter lasting two hours and 35 minutes.
Third-seeded P.C. Vignesh, also of AP, will take on Krishna in the semifinals, while the other match will have Saketh meeting seasoned Nitin Kirrtane of Maharashtra.
The results: Quarterfinals: Men: Saketh Myneni (AP) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (TN) 7-5, 6-4; Nitin Kirrtane (Mah) bt Vijay Kannan (TN) 6-2, 6-1; P.C. Vignesh (AP) bt Saurav Sukul (Ben) 6-4, 6-2; A.S. Suresh Krishna (AP) bt Shahbaaz Khan (Mah) 6-7(2-7), 6-3, 6-4.
Women: Amrita Mukherjee (Ben) bt Vaniya Dangwal (Del) 6-4, 6-4; Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN) bt Treta Bhattacharya (Ben) 7-5, 6-2; Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy (AP) bt Nupur Kaul (Del) 6-2, 6-0; Ankita Raina (Guj) bt Sansitha Nandkumar (TN) 6-1, 6-0.
Doubles: Semifinals: Men: Christopher Marquis (Mah) & Rupesh Roy (Ben) bt Saketh Myneni (AP) & Vijay Kannan (TN) 6-3, 7-5; Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash & Fariz Mohamed (TN) bt Arjun Khade & Nitin Kirrtane (Mah) 6-4, 5-7, 10-8.
Women: Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN) & Ankita Raina (Guj) bt Smriti Joon (Har) & Vanya Dangwal (Del) 6-1, 6-3; Saadgi Rajni & Eetee Mehta (Guj) bt Amrita Mukherjee (Ben) & Sansitha Nandkumar (TN) 6-4, 6-4.
