Sai, Rushmi to clash in final

The two players showed contrasting styles of play. Shruti had the more conventional game – big forehand, fast on the baseline and occasional net forays. While Sai was a bit different – deceptively quick, deep ground strokes and usingevery inch of her rivals court. It came as no surprise when she revealed after the match that for almost a year she has been training at the Krishnan Academy at Chennai.

Sai took the first game 6-1 and with a 4-1 lead in the second, she might have fancied an early end to the ordeal under the sun but Shruti stalled the plans though just temporarily. Sai hung on to prevail at 6-4.

If the first semi-final followed the script the second had drama. The fourth seed Orawan Wongkamalasai had a strategy – if the opponent is better, then be smart. Barring a soft serve, Rushmi possesses a deadly inside out forehand and is pretty quick. To counter that Orawan mixed a concoction of spin, slice, drops and lobs.

Thailand’s fifth ranked player won the first set 7-5 and was leading 4-1 but then Rushmi broke the trance to draw level at 4-4. Opportunity knocked again at Orawan’s door when she had a match point at 5-4 (40-30). But as a backhand slice sailed too far to the left, opportunity crossed the net.

Rushmi tookthe game to make it 5-5 and finished off the second set in 68 minutes at 7-2 in the tie-breaker. This shattered the Thai girl, who was troubled by a stomach cramp, both mentally and physically. Rushmi cantered to a 6-1 win to pack home the second foreigner after she had ousted Anna Nefedova on Russia in the quarter-final.

As for the final, Sai and Rushmi have been clashing since their wonder years and so there not much they do not know about each other game. The last they played was in the National Games about a year back at Bangalore, where Sai won. But tomorrow is another day.

RESULTS

Semi-final: Sai Jayalakshmy bt Shruti Dhawan 6-2, 6-4; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Orawan Wongkamalasai 7-5, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1.

Patty Mureb top seeded

PUNE: Patty Mureb of US, the top ranked player at 651 and the top seed, would lead the foreign challenge in the BPL Mobile International Tennis Federation (ITF) Womens Championship at the Deccan Gymkhana Courts here from October 19 to 24.

Archana Venkatramanwould lead the Indian challenge. Others in the fray include Suvimaol Duangchanog of Thailand (705), Anna Eugenia Nefedova (731) of Russia and Orawan Wongkamalasai also of Thailand (789).

The Indian champion Sai Jayalakshmy (735) and Rushmi Chakravarti (901), who is the winner of the Western Indian Tennis Championship held here last year, are in the fray for the prize money of $5,000. The Pune leg will be the second leg. The seedings would be announced after the main draw on Sunday.

The players: Patty Murren (US) 651, Archana Venkatraman (Ind) 660, Suvimol Duangchan (Thai) 705, Anna Engenia Nefedova (Russia) 731, Sai Jayalakshmy (Ind) 735, Orawan Wongkamalasai (Thai) 789, Arthi Venkatraman (Ind) 901, Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) 901, Montika Anuchan (Ind), Shruti Dhawan (Ind), Sadia Pathan (Ind), Trishna Williams (Ind), Juthika Choksi (Ind), Karishma Patel (Ind), Astrid Gendron-Judd (Canada), Priyanka Contractor (Ind), Stuti Smit (Ind), Sumitra Rao (Ind), Jasleen Randhawa (Ind), Pallavi Ravikumar(Ind), Shivant Bhatt (Ind), Tarminder Grover (Ind), Nikita Bhardwaj (Ind), Sheetal Gautham (Ind), Tara S Kanbargimata (Ind).