Top seed Jia-Jing Lu of China and defending champion Ankita Raina of India were knocked out of the USD 25,000 NECC-ITF Women's tennis tournament on a day of upsets at Deccan Gymkhana here today.
Winning only 33 per cent of her service games, Ankita lost the plot early on against Russian opponent Viktoria Kamenskaya and was beaten in straight sets in round two.
The Pune-based player, seeded third, double-faulted three times against Viktoria who, in contrast, sent down two aces and won 75 per cent of her service games to score a 6-4 6-1 upset win.
Ankita later joined hands with Jia-Jing to storm into the semi-finals to keep her title hopes alive in doubles. The fourth-seeded pair ousted the Ukraine-Russia duo of Veronika Kapshay and Polina Leykina 7-6 (9-7) 4-6 10-8 in the quarterfinals.
Spain's Georgina Garcia-Perez won 90 per cent of her service games in another second round clash against top seed Jia-Jing, who struggled to keep her service from being attacked, winning only 67 per cent, and got eliminated in straight sets.
Georgina fired three aces in the first set to unsettle her Chinese opponent before taking the set 6-3. There were two double faults that crept into Georgina's game in the second set, but she stayed on course to script a 6-3 6-4 win.
Elsewhere in the singles draw, second seed Polina Leykina, sixth seed Barbara Haas and No. 7 Nina Stojanovic moved into the last eight by scoring straight-set wins.
There was another surprise when qualifier Ana Veselinovic of Montenegro defeated fourth seed Fiona Ferro of France 6-3 6-2.
Results: Singles (2nd round): Georgina Garcia-Perez (Esp) bt 1-Jia-Jing Lu (Chn) 6-3 6-4; Anna Morgina (Rus) bt Q-Britt Geukens (Bel) 6-2 6-2; Viktoria Kamenskaya (Rus) bt 3-Ankita Raina (Ind) 6-4 6-1; 6-Barbara Haas (Aut) bt Snehadevi S Reddy (Ind) 6-4 6-3; 7-Nina Stojanovic (Srb) bt Doroteja Eric (Srb) 6-2 6-3; Q-Ana Veselinovic (Mne) bt 4-Fiona Ferro (Fra) 6-3 6-2; Aryna Sabalenka (Blr) bt 5-Valentyna Ivakhnenko (Rus) 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4); 2-Polina Leykina (Rus) bt Veronika Kapshay (Ukr) 6-2 6-1.
