Unseeded Riya Bhatia ousted fourth seed Dhruthi Tatachar in straight sets as other seeds cantered into the quarterfinals of the Gulbarga ITF $10,000 Women's Tennis Tournament at the Chandrashekar Patil Stadium here on Wednesday.
In a contest that lasted two hours and 24 minutes, unseeded Kanika Vaidya rallied brilliantly to defeat fifth seed Prarthana Thombare in a gruelling three-setter. The fifth seed was broken in the first game of the match but she proved her prowess by coming back strongly, breaking the Singapore-based lass in the fourth and sixth games to wrap up the first set.
However, Kanika was not going down without a fight. The second set saw the two trade serves. There were as many as six service breaks before the players held on to serves from 5-all to force the breaker.
In the tie-breaker, Kanika clinched three points on the trot to take a 4-1 lead and again clinched three points in a row to level set scores.
The decider was a fast paced contest with the players pushing themselves to hold serves. At 2-2, Thombare, leading 30-15, committed two double faults and Kanika came up with a beauty of a forehand down the line to claim a break.
Thombare did her best, tried all the tricks in her bag to reclaim the break but Kanika hung on grimly to move into the last eight. She next takes on top seed Prerna Bhambri in the quarterfinals.
Riya played steady tennis while Dhruthi committed too many unforced errors to bow out.
Top seed Prerna spent little time on court, dispelling Dakshata 6-0, 6-2.
Other seeded players to move into the last eight were No.2 seed Natasha Palah, third seed Snehadevi Reddy, and No.6 Sharmadaa Baluu.
