Myskina feasts on Shikha’s aggression

In between, the top seed let Shikha do all the grunting and running, herself playing at no more than half pace as she snuffed out the last Indian challenge in the singles to set up a date with unseeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi in the semi-finals.

The gulf in the rankings — Shikha is 140 places below the Russian — was too wide for the Indian to bridge as she succumbed 4-6, 2-6. Myskina looked uncomfortable at the start, nursing a muscle pull that she sustained in her doubles quarter-finals yesterday.

Shikha was all pumped up, excited and eager as she went for broke. She did break Myskina in the third game and then held serve to go 3-1 up. It was 15 minutes into the match, just the time it took the elegant Russian to warm up enough to move more freely.

The first set looked closer than it was, but there were no such misgivings in the second. Myskina decided enough was enough and just raised her game a notch. Shikha was never there in the reckoning thereafter.

At the end of the match, Myskina had a word of caution for the Indian. “She should learn to be a little patient. She was just being too aggressive and, honestly, it looked like she wanted to win each point,” she said.

And Shikha did learn a lesson or two when she said, “I need to maintain my calm. Today, I was too eager and she knew it.’’