Karman, Rutuja enter quarter finals

Seventh seed Karman Kaur Thandi and wild card Rutuja Bhosale kept the Indian interest alive in the USD 25,000 NECC ITF Women's Tennis championships by reaching the quarter-finals with contrasting wins at the Deccan Gymkhana courts here today.
Karman Thandi had an easy day out and drubbed unseeded Ukranian Valeriya Strakhova 6-1, 6-1 in an hour, while giant-killer Rutuja took the difficult way to shrug off the last standing qualifier Laja Juvan of Slovania 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in second round matches.
Karman was hardly tested in the first set by the Ukranian. Having beaten the Valeriya earlier, the 285th ranked Karman raced to a 3-0 advantage, firing three successive aces in the third game.

Valeriya held serve in the 4th, but that was all she could manage in her favour.
The second set saw Karman earning three break-points in the first game. However, Valeriya pulled back to deuce, but eventually lost the next two points to hand Karman a 1-0 lead.
Up 3-0, Karman dropped the 4th, but struck back in the next winning the game at love for a 4-1 advantage which she capitalised and won the match.

Next up for Karman Thandi is No. 2 Spaniard Georgina Garcia-Perez who got the better of Estelle Cascino (France) 6-1, 6-4.
Rutuja, who shocked third seed Ankita Raina yesterday in round one, found her 17-year-old Slovanian opponent Juvan a tough nut to crack.

In the first set, Rutuja conceded breaks in the 3rd and 5th games to trail 1-4. With the Slovanian holding the next, Rutuja was 1-5 in arrears.
But she bounced back in the eighth game after holding her serve, breaking her opponent at love and then won a marathon ninth game to cut the deficit to 4-5. But she dropped serve in the 10th and lost the set.
The loss of the opening set seemed to trigger Rutuja's fight back as the 21-year-old returned to open a 4-0 advantage, dropped the 5th (4-1), but then swept the second set 6-2 to push the match into the deciding third set.

In the third, Rutuja level-pegged for four games, then broke the Slovanian in the 6th for a 4-2 lead. An unexpected fight-back by the Slovanian cut the lead to 4-3, before the Indian broke again in the 8th and served out to close the ninth game, the set and the match.
Rutuja next plays unseeded Russian Olga Doroshina who shocked no. 8 Mai Minokoshi (Japan) 6-2, 6-4.
Five seeded players remained in the contest, including top-seed Jia-Jing Lu (China), no. 2 Georgina (Spain), fourth seed Katy Dunne (Great Britan), fifth seed Ganna Poznikhirenko (Ukraine) and no. 7 Karman.
In the womens doubles, second seeds Ankita Raina (Ind)/ Emily Webley-Smith (Great Britan) became the first pair to reach the semifinal.

In their quarter final encounter they downed the unseeded Ukraine pair of Albina Khabibulina/Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) 6-2, 2-6, 10-5.
Results:
Singles (Pre quarter finals): Olga Doroshina (Rus) b 8-Mai Minokoshi (Jpn) 6-2, 6-4; 2-Georgina Garcia-Perez (Esp) b Estelle Cascino (Fra) 6-1, 6-4; 5-Ganna Poznikhirenko (Ukr) b Amina Anshba (Rus) 2-6, 6-1, 7-5; 7-Karman Kaur Thandi b Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr) 6-1, 6-1; WC-Rutuja Bhosale (Ind) b Q-Kaja Juvan (Slo) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; 1-Jia-Jing Lu (Chn) b Gozal Ainitdinova (Kaz) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1; Fatma Al Nabhani (Oma) b Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) 6-2, 6-4; 4-Katy Dunne (GBR) b Gabriella Taylor (GBR) 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.