Shruti knocks out top seed Archana

After two days of dull and drab tennis, things moved at a fast clip today. And the DHAITA trainee Shruti Dhawan had big role to play in bringing this turnaround. Showing those rare qualities of speed and power which most Indian players lack, she handed out Archana her second defeat in two weeks. At the New Delhi Nationals last week, Shruti had blown a comfortable lead in thesecond set when Archana’s moonball strategy broke her rythum. But today, Shruti’s fierce drive vollies sent Archana’s moonballs into the orbit. The result was the same as last week but this time it came a lot easier.

The Rushmi-Anna match was expected to be a slam bang duel. Rushmi’s powerful top spin forehands were pitted against Anna’s slap-like flat strokes. What mattered at the end was consistency as Anna’s fragility was exposed in the second set. Rushmi broke Anna in the third, fifth and ninth games to take the first set at 6-3. The second set was hardly a contest as Rushmi wrapped the match in about a hour.

The Thailand girls played the most entertaining of matches. Playing with very little inhibitions, they showcased an all-round game alien to the hosts. There was very little to choose between the two, but Orawan mixed her strokes cleverly to enter semi-final. In both the sets Montika lead (3-1 in the first and 3-0 in the second) but Orawan kept her cool to go through.

Third seed Sai who has beenquietly moving up in the draw had yet another no-nonsense win. She defeated fifth seed Arathi Venkatraman 6-3, 6-1.

The Pune leg of the circuit will feature India’s Jahnavi Parekh, besides the top names here. At the 884th spot on the WTA list, she will be the fifth seeded player here.

The Semi-Final line-up:

Shruti Dhawan vs Sai Jayalakshmi; Rushmi Chakravarthi vs Orawan Wangkamalasai.

Results

Singles: Sai Jayalakshmi bt Arathi Venkatraman 6-3, 6-1; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Anna Nefedova 6-3, 6-1; Shruti Dhawan bt Archana Venkatraman 6-2, 6-3; Orawan Wangkamalasai bt Montika Anuchan 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles: Sai Jayalakshmi & Rushmi Chakravarthi beat Nikita Bhardwaj & Trishna Williams 6-1, 6-2; Sheetal Gautham & Shruti Dhawan bt Reetu Sethi & Pooja Deshmukh 6-0, 7-5; Orawan Wangkamalasai & Montika Anuchan bt Shalini Thakur & Juthika Chokshi 6-3, 6-1; Archana Venkatraman & Arthi Venkatraman bt Anna Nefedova & Stutti Smit 6-0, 6-4.