Third seeded Rishika Sunkara battled hard before prevailing 6-7 (0) 6-4 6-4 over Swetha Sree Hari in a prequarterfinal match of the K S Narayanan Memorial ITF Women's Futures at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, Egmore, here today.
In the first set, Swetha's consistency unsettled the tall and hard hitting Rishika and she took set to a tie break. While Rishika faltered, Swetha kept her cool to win the tiebreak 7-0.
It was to the credit of Rishika that she recovered well on time to play strategic tennis in the second and third sets managing to keep herself ahead and close out both the sets 6-4 6-4 to move into the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Varunya Wongteanchai of Thailand got the better of fifth seeded Indian Sharrmadaa Baluu 6-1 6-0. Wongteanchai stroked fluently, giving Sharrmadaa no chance to settle down.
The clash between Xi-Yao Wan of China, seeded fourth, and Efriliya Herlina of Indonesia provided an exciting contest, inspite of the heat.
The Chinese posted a 6-7 (6) 6-3 6-4 win over Herlina.
Top seeded Prarthana Thombare had an easy outing against Sharon Sanchana 6-2 7-6 (1).
In yet another interesting encounter, sixth seeded Nidhi Chilumula defeated Pranjala Yadlapalli 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
Singles: Prarthana G. Thombare (IND) [1] b Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND) 6-2 7-6 (1), Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) b Sharrmadaa Baluu (IND) [5] 6-1 6-0, Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) [4] b Efriliya Herlina (INA) 6-7 (6) 6-3 6-4, Nidhi Chilumula (IND) [6] b Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) 7-5 4-6 6-1, Eetee Maheta (IND) [7] b Chun-Yan He (CHN) 6-3 6-1, Rishika Sunkara (IND) [3] b Swetha Sree Hari (IND) 6-7(0) 6-4 6-4, Hirono Watanabe (JPN) [8] b Sneha Padamata (IND) 6-2 6-1, Natasha Palha (IND) [2] b Amrita Mukherjee (IND) 6-2 6-1.
Doubles: Natasha PALHA (IND)/Prarthana G THOMBARE (IND) [1] b Vaniya DANGWAL (IND)/Sneha PADAMATA (IND) 6-3 6-2, Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) [4] b Yui Saikai (JPN)/ Preethi Ujjini (IND) 6-0 6-2, Sharrmadaa Baluu (IND) [3]/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) b Nithya Raj Babu Raj (IND)/Tanisha Rohira (IND) 6-1 6-1, Hirono Watanabe (JPN) [2]/ Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) b Amrita Mukherjee (IND)/ Likitha Shetty (IND) 6-2 6-2.
