Bidar: The fifth seed Ankita Raina led the Indian charge into the quarter finals of the Ashok Kheny $10,000 ITF Bidar Open’ Women’s International with a 6-1, 2-6,6-2 victory over a spirited Karnataka challenger Spurthi Shivalingaiah in the second round tie at Police training school courts here on Wednesday.
Ankita dominated the match to a large extent with her solid forehand and sound ground strokes while Spurthi struggled to find her rhythm and due to foot blisters, was a bit sluggish. Ankita took the first set at 6-1 after breaking her rival in the second and fourth game. Spurthi came back charging into the tie and took the second set at 6-2 with an aggressive display. In the decider Ankita Raina seized the advantage breaking her rival in the third game before rain halted play for well over ninety minutes while Spurti struggled with her rhythm due to the rain interruption and when play resumed Ankita was in total charge and took four games in a row for a 5 -1 lead and closed the set and match at 6-2 with her rival dropping her racquet in frustration.
In the other ties, between battle of two qualifiers, the reigning Junior National champion, Prarthana Thombare continued her good run beating Taipei’s Chia Hsein Yang 6-3, 6-1 and entered the quarterfinals. Prarthana played sensibly and punished her rival’s lose returns.
However, match of the day was between Zi Yang of China & Ju-Eun Kim of Korea which witnessed some high quality. The finalist at the Gulbarga open Zi Yang of china suffered a 3-6, 6-2 ,3-6 defeat at the hands of Ju-Eun Kim of Korea. The Korean girl who chased down every ball matched Zi Yang’s power play. After they split the first two sets, Kim played smart varying her game nicely and raced to a 4-2 lead and won the set at 6-3 and the match.
The Thai contender Varunya Wongtean Chai who beat Prerna Bhambri in the first round, continued to sail through by stopping the hard hitting Ukranian teenager Oleksandra Korashivilli 6-3, 6-4 in a match marked by some good rallies.
The second seed Nungnadda Wannasuk of Thailand crushed Anushka Bhargava of India 6-1,6-1 in fifteen minutes and entered the quarterfinals.
The top seed Venise Chan of Hong Kong cruised to the Quarter finals in a close match beating Chinese Nan-Nan Zhang 7-6 (3), 6-3 in nearly 120 minutes.
Singles Results (All Pre Quarter finals)
1. Prarthana Thombare (Ind) bt Chia Hsien Yang 6-3, 6-1
2. Ju-Eun Kim (Kor) bt S-3 Zi Yang (Chn) 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
3. Varunya Wongteanchai (Tha) bt Oleksandra Korashvilli (Ukr) 6-3, 6-4
4. S-5 Ankita Raina bt Spurthi Shivalingaiah (Ind) 6-1, 2-6, 6-2
5. S-2 Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) bt Anushka Bhargava (Ind) 6-1, 6-1
6. S-1 Venise Chan Wing-Yau bt Nan – Nan Zhang (Chn) 7-6 (3), 6-3
7. S-6 Yumi Miyazaki (Jpn) bt Ho Ching Wu (HKG) 6-0, 4-6, 6-2