Nabhani survives Bhosale scare

Second seed Fatma Al Nabhani survived to fight another day when unseeded Rutja Bhosale took the Omani to the wire before succumbing in the Zuari Garden City, ITF women's tennis tournament, here Wednesday.

The pre-quarterfinal contest saw Nabhani being on the verge of elimination in the second set when she was down 2-5 after losing the first. But the Omani rallied to level set scores and take the contest to the decider before winning the match 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 7-5.

The first set saw the 18-year-old Indian breaking the second seed in the sixth game, but dropping serve in the ninth. The players then held serve thereafter to force the tie-breaker which Bhosale dominated.

In the second set, Bhosale broke Nabhani in the fifth and seventh games to race to a 5-2 lead. The Omani, furious with a line call, vented her anger on her opponent, breaking Bhosale in the eighth and 10th games to level game scores. In the ensuing tie-breaker, Nabhani pushed herself to prevail.

The third set saw the players hold serve once each in the first 11 games before Nabhani served out for the match and book her place in the quarter-finals.

Sixth seed Shweta Rana bowed out when she retired due to injury while trailing against unseeded Sai Samhitha Chamarthi 2-6, 1-5. Similarly, eighth seed Chinese Xi-Yao Wang pulled out when trailing 6-7 (5), 5-2 against Sri Vaishnavi Pedi Reddy.

Local lass Sharmadaa Baluu did not wait to be challenged by China's Chun-Yan He, winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 to book her place in the quarter-finals, where she meets No 5 seed Ching-wen Hsu.

In the doubles competition, the top four seeded pairs took their places in the semi-finals to be played Thursday.

Results:

Singles (Pre-quarter-finals, Prefix denotes seeding): 7-Nidhi Chilumula bt Karman Kaur Thandi 6-2, 7-5; 2-Fatma Al Nabhani (Oma) bt Rutja Bhosale 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 7-5; 4-Rishika Sunkara bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-3, 1-6, 6-2; 1-Prarthana Thombare bt Vaniya Dangwal 6-4, 6-1; Sharmadaa Baluu bt Chun-Yan He (Chn) 6-2, 6-3; 5-Ching-Wen Hsu (Tpe) bt Eetee Maheta 6-1, 6-2; Sai Samhitha Chamarthi bt 6-Shweta Rana 6-2, 5-1 (Retd); Sri Vaishnavi Pedi Reddy bt 8-Xi-Yao Wang (Chn) 7-6 (5), 5-2 (retd).

Doubles (Quarter-finals): A1-Fatma Al Nabhani (Oma) / Rishika Sunkara bt Pragati Nataraj / Nupur Umashankar 6-1, 6-1; 4-Rutja Bhosale / Nidhi Chilimula bt Rushmi Chakravarthi / Bhuvna Kalva 6-0, 6-4; 2-Sharmadaa Baluu / Prarthana Thombre bt Vaniya Dangwal / Amrita Mukherjee 7-6 (2), 6-0; 3-Ching-Wen-Hsu (Tpe) / Natasha Palah bt Snehadevi S Reddy / Druthi Tatachar Venugopal 6-3, 6-0.