Sunitha, bee-sting send Sandy packing

Sandy Gumulya8217;s counterpunching style tends to frustrate her opponents no end, and Sunitha Rao found herself...

Sandy Gumulya8217;s counterpunching style tends to frustrate her opponents no end, and Sunitha Rao found herself at the receiving end of the Indonesian8217;s trickery today. The memory of her recent Fed Cup loss to Sandy may have been stirred as the 21-year-old went about her business, and at the end of a one-sided first set, the only Indian survivor in the quarter-finals of this 25,000 ITF Women8217;s Circuit tournament was at a loss for words 8212; and shots.

Help arrived, though, from unexpected quarters 8212; a bee sting caused medical attention to be directed towards Sandy at a crucial phase in the match, and Sunitha saw her chance to get right back in contention.

She successfully overturned a one-set loss, and Sandy8217;s restricted movement was an added bonus as the winners kept coming off the Indian8217;s racket.

The battle in this 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory for Sunitha was considerably less in magnitude by the time the match reached its rather tame end, but the Indian was relieved at making it to the semi-finals, and a career-best ranking.

8220;I8217;m just glad I got through; it was very ugly out there,8221; was how she summed up the match. 8220;The last two times I played her, she was definitely much better than this, but today, I had more problems with myself than her. I was struggling, and I needed time to settle down.

8220;The ball was flying everywhere in the first set. She gets a lot of balls back, but I told myself I had to stick to my own game, put more spin and swing more agressively. There are going to be days when you dont play well, but you have to be able to turn it around,8221; she added.

In the semi-final, she will take on fifth seed Estonian Margit Ruutel, who defeated Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand 6-4, 6-1.

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The other semi-final pits Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia against Uzbekistan8217;s Vlada Eshkibarova.

Singles quarter finals: Sunitha Rao bt Sandy Gumulya INA 2-6, 6-2, 6-1; Margit ruutel EST bt Varatchaya Wongteanchai THA 6-4, 6-1; Vlada Eshkibarova UZB bt Aniko Kapros HUN 6-3, 2-1 ret; Anastasija Sevastova LAT bt Montinee Tangphong THA 6-1, 6-4

Doubles semi-finals: Kelly Anderson/Chanelle Scheepers RSA bt Yayuk Basuki/Romana Tedjakusuma INA 6-4, 5-7, 10-6; Teodora Mircic SRB/Lenka Tvaroskova SVK bt Ksenia Palkina KGZ/Anastasia Poltoratskaya RUS 6-4, 6-4