Ankita Raina was at her fighting best as she recovered from a precarious situation to beat the towering Jacqueline Cabaj Awad of Sweden 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Federal Bank $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Tennis Project, Baliawas, Gurugram, on Friday.
In a battle of wits that lasted nearly three hours, Ankita trailed 2-4 and was serving at 0-30, when she stepped up her game to deliver the knock-out punch on Jacqueline. The Swede had put her big frame to good use in hammering heavy strokes all over the court to exasperate the India No. 1 till then.
From the precarious position, Ankita dropped only two more points in winning the four games for a memorable victory. She had earlier fought from being 2-5 in the first set. And later could not serve out the second set at 5-1, but broke the Swede’s serve to take the match into the decider.
ALSO READ: Delhi Open Challenger: Blancaneaux advances to quarters; India’s Kadhe-Jeevan outsed
In the semifinals, Ankita will play the wiry Korean, Yeonwoo Ku who eased past Zhibek Kulambayeva of Kazakhstan for the loss of three games.
Zhibek joined hands with Ankita to make the doubles final later in the day.
Sahaja Yamalapalli also fought hard but went down in three sets to the top seed Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia who was stronger and crafty to race through the decider without dropping a game.
Dalila will play third seed Justina Mikulskyte who handled the power game of Ekaterina Kazionova with poise.
Jacqueline and Justina made the doubles final, beating Yeonwoo Ku and Diana Marcinkevica in two tight sets.
Comments
SHARE