Chennai, April 10 (IANS): The top two seeds Prarthana Thombare and Natasha Palha registered straight set wins to move into the semi-finals of the KS Narayanan Memorial ITF Women’s Futures tennis tournament here Thursday.
Thombare ousted Varunya Wongteanchai of Thailand 6-4, 6-2, while Palha made short work of a listless Hirono Watanabe of Japan 6-0, 6-2.
Meanwhile, sixth seeded Nidhi Chilumula scored a facile straight set win over Xi-Yao Wang of China conceding only three games.
Wang had played two three-setters in the earlier rounds which seemed to have totally drained her. It is to the credit of Nidhi that she kept her head to complete the straight forward win and reach the semifinals.
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In the longest match of the day, seventh seeded Eetee Maheta recovered after a first set tiebreak loss to beat a fatigued third Rishika Sunkara, the third seed, 6-7(3-7), 6-1, 6-0.
The results:
Singles (quarter-finals): 1-Prarthana G Thombare bt Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) 6-4, 6-2; 2-Natasha Palha bt 8-Hirono Watanabe (JPN) 6-0, 6-2; 6-Nidhi Chilumula bt 4-Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) 6-3, 6-0; 7-Eetee Maheta bt 3-Rishika Sunkara 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-0.
Doubles (semi-finals): 1-Natasha Palha / Prarthana G Thombare bt 4-Nidhi Chilumula / Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) 6-2, 6-3; 3-Sharrmadaa Baluu / Rishika Sunkara bt 2-Hirono Watanabe (JPN) / Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) 3-6, 6-1 (10-5).
