Defending champ Prerna Bhambri enters final of the Fenesta Open tennis national championship
11 Oct 2014 4:40 AM GMT
Third seed Prerna set up a title clash with seventh seed Karman Kaur Thandi
Third seed Prerna, who took an hour and 20 minutes to shade fellow Delhi girl Shweta, started on a strong note notching up a 3-0 lead. Shweta showed signs of recovery, and broke Prerna in the fourth game and managed to hold her serve next. (Photo:
New Delhi: Defending champion Prerna Bhambri brushed aside second seed and last year’s runner-up Shweta Rana 6-3, 6-2 to enter her third consecutive wom-en’s final of the Fenesta Open tennis national championship here on Friday. Third seed Prerna, who did not drop a single set en route to the final, set up a title clash with seventh seed Karman Kaur Thandi.
“I dominated the match. My groundstrokes were solid and I played better than Shweta,” Prerna said after the semifinal.
Asked about Saturday’s final, she said, “I have never played Karman before, but she is a tough player to beat. She has put up consistent performances on the circuit. I hope tomorrow’s match will be in my favour.”
Third seed Prerna, who took an hour and 20 minutes to shade fellow Delhi girl Shweta, started on a strong note notching up a 3-0 lead. Shweta showed signs of recovery, and broke Prerna in the fourth game and managed to hold her serve next.
But thereafter she looked unsettled and unforced errors only made things worse for her. The defending champion then spooled in the next two games and got all-important break points in the ninth game to seal the set.
The second set was a relatively easier affair for the third seed. Shweta held her first two service games but Prerna dominated from there on to book her final berth. In the other women’s singles last four encounter, sixth seed Vaishnavi Peddireddy failed to extend her impressive run after pulling out with a sore shoulder.
Having lost the first set 4-6, Thandi won the second 6-1 and was leading 3-0 in the decider when Vaishnavi conceded the match.
In the men’s singles semi-finals, unseeded Sidharth Rawat pulled off the day’s big upset, overpowering top seed Karunuday Singh 6-4, 6-1 in an hour.
The match was level initially (3-3). Two double faults in the seventh game though gave Rawat a 4-3 lead and he never looked back. The second set was a 25-minute affair as the top seed managed to win just fifth game. In the summit clash, Sidharth will meet second seed Vishnu Vardhan, who edged past sixth seed Ronit Bisht 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
( Source : dc )
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