Delightful day for Radhika

By K. Keerthivasan

CHENNAI, SEPT. 6. Radhika Tulpule played the crucial points well to beat the second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Indian Oil Servo ITF MGC $ 10,000 women's tennis tournament at the Gymkhana Club courts here on Thursday.

The first set was evenly-contested till the fifth game, with each player trading breaks. Using her backhand spin and solid groundstrokes to telling effect, the fifth-seeded Radhika ran up a 4-2 lead. She maintained the momentum, winning the seventh game with an ace, and took the next two games to clinch the first set. Even though Rushmi hit winners from the back of the court, she was pretty inconsistent.

However, Rushmi started to get into the groove in the second set as she came up with a flurry of forehand winners. The games went on serve till the eighth game, but Radhika broke Rushmi's serve in the ninth with a passing shot and a powerful forehand which the latter was unable to return.

Radhika then closed out the match in style with her serve. ``I served well and moreover she (Rushmi) made a lot of unforced errors,'' said Radhika, who last won the ITF $ 10,000 tournament at Pune. Rushmi, while admitting that she played badly, expressed her displeasure with the umpiring and felt that some calls went against her.

Radhika will have to cross another hurdle - a strong one at that - in the semifinals when she takes on eighth-seeded Archana Venkataraman. Except for a late fightback in the second set by Sonal Phadke, Archana had no problems as she rode past the fourth seed 6-2, 7-5 in an hour and 25 minutes.

Archana has been playing well in this tournament and Radhika knows it. ``I have to play aggressively if I have to win,'' said the fifth-seeded Radhika.

Sonal could only take the first and third games on her serve, as Archana outrallied her in the first set. In the second, Sonal, after being broken in the first and third games, broke back Archana's serve in the fourth. Both players then traded breaks from the sixth to 10th games.

But it was Archana who found the vital break on Sonal's serve in the 11th game and held her own serve to clinch a well-deserved victory. On meeting Radhika, Archana said, ``The last time we played on a flexi court in the final at Pune, I lost in a close tie-breaker. Anyway I would like to take every round as a challenge.''

India is a happy hunting ground for Turkey's Ipek Senoglu, who became the only foreigner to enter the semifinals with a comfortable 6-2, 6-0 victory over Ankita Bhambri in less than an hour. Ankita did come up with good winners, especially on her backhands, but it was the bigger and stronger Senoglu who eventually prevailed. Senoglu now meets wildcard Karishma Patel in the semifinals. For Karishma, who won a long battle against Nischella Reddy 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, this is easily her best showing in the ITF circuit.

After claiming the first set, Karishma lost her way but came back strongly to win the encounter which lasted just below two hours. While mentioning that she had not seen Senoglu's game so far, Karishma said she would go all out and play her natural, aggressive game.

The results (quarterfinals) (Indians unless otherwise stated):

Singles: Radhika Tulpule bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-3, 6-4; Archana Venkataraman bt Sonal Phadke 6-2, 7-5; Ipek Senoglu (Tur) bt Ankita Bhambri 6-2, 6-0; Karishma Patel bt Nischella Reddy 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Doubles: Sheetal Goutham- Liza Pereira bt Megha Vakharia-Geeta Manohar 7-6(6), 7-6(2); Ankita Bhambri- Isha Lakhani bt Tara Kanbargimath-Karishma Patel 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; Samrita Sekar-Shubha Srinivasan bt Radhika Mandke-Sonal Phadke 6- 3, 5-7, 6-3; Sai Jayalakshmi-Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Rati Kumar- Lata Asudani 6-1, 6-0.

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