Eighth seed Isha Lakhani was the lone Indian standing in the NECC-ITF women’s championship. Today Isha reached her second $25,000 semi-final this year.Pitted against her doubles partner Rushmi Chakravarthy, the match was set to be interesting. However, Isha — India’s fourth best bet — ranked 41 places above Rushmi, exposed the vast difference in telling fashion, winning 6-1, 6-1. Rushmi, older by eight years, was simply outclassed by a high-on-confidence opponent who played a near perfect game. The final match turned out to be an easy outing for the winner.The southpaw from Mumbai now runs into Ling Zhang of Hong Kong, who made her first semi-final at the senior level. In a battle of unseeded players, Zhang stopped the run of Korean qualifier Kyung-Yee Chae 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a one-hour-50-minute battle, which turned out to be the toughest and longest of the day.The Korean broke Ling in the fifth game in the opening set to decide the first set. In the second Ling stuck to the baseline, mixed her shots and broke Chae in the sixth and eighth games to level scores.In the decider, Chae was broken in the very first and then in the third game. However, breaking Ling in the sixth game she raised hopes, before Ling’s 7th game return break followed by an 8th game win on serve wrapped up the issue.In the other semi-final, Alexandra Panova (Russia) will take on Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia. Both registered straight set wins.RESULTSSingles: QF: Zhang Ling (HKG) b Kyung-Yee Chae (Kor) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Isha Lakhani (8) b Rushmi Chakravarthy 6-1, 6-1; Alexendra Panova (Rus) b Alexendra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) 6-3, 6-2; 2-Sandy Gumulya (Ind) b 6-Silvia Disderi (Itl) 6-3, 6-4.Doubles; SF: Varatchaya Wong-teanchai (Tha)/ Ling Zhang (HKG) b Nina Bratchikova (Rus)/ Sandy Gumulya (Ina) 6-3, 6-4; Wynne Prakusya/Angelique Widjaja (Ina) b Kyung-Yee Chae/ Jung Yoon Shin (Kor) 7-5, 3-6, 10-8.
