Humera Shaik scored an upset win over defending champion Sathwika Sama to set up a semifinal clash with Rishika Ravindran, who shocked fourth seeded Lalita Devarakonda in the 'Rendez-Vous' clay court event, here today.
Humera, playing on the newly laid clay courts at the DLTA, used her forehand to good effect and troubled Sathwika throughout the match. She led the first set 5-4 and then broke Sathwika to take the first set.
Sathwika came back strong and breezed past Humera 6-1 to draw parity. In the final set, Sathwika had a match point but Humera held her nerves to win the match 6-4 1-6 7-5.
Tamil Nadu's Rishika dominated Lalita for most of the match and won the first set 6-3. She led the second set 3-0 but Lalita shots back to make it 3 all. However, it wasn't enough as the Rishika took the game 6-4.
Meanwhile, second seeded Mahak Jain from Bhopal breezed past P Abhinikka of Tamil Nadu 6-4,6-2 to book a place for herself in the semi-finals.
In the boys category, Paramveer Bajwa could not replicate his first round performance and crashed out of the tournament after losing 6-0 4-6 5-7 to Adil Kalyanpur from Telangana. He had defeated the top seed Parikshit in the first round.
