India’s Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale displayed immense tenacity while etching three-set wins to reach the singles semi-finals of the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open at the KSLTA Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.
Raina, fourth seed in the tournament, fought past Dea Herdzelas of Bosnia And Herzegovina 6-1, 6-7 (7), 7-5 while Bhosale overcame eighth seeded Briton Eden Silva 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Raina will face Bhosale in an all-Indian semi-final on Saturday.
The on-going $40k tournament—a part of the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour, is hosted by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) and it is sponsored by KPB Family Trust.
Earlier, top seeded Brenda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic also entered the semi-finals with a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Indonesia’s sixth seeded Madelyne Nugroho. The No. 5 seed Dalila Jakupovic also registered an easy 6-2, 6-0 win against Ikumi Yamazaki in the other quarter-final.
“The first set was going pretty easy and fast and in the second I was leading 5-3 but I didn’t really use my chances. Then at 5-5 I broke her serve and then I held my serve to win the match. I am happy that it was not a three-set match because physically I was not 100 percent — probably because of the matches and the heat as well. I am happy that I have eased through,” said Fruhvirtova after her win.
Later in the day, Bhosale and her Swedish partner Jacqueline Awad went down to No. 1 seeded Portuguese pair of Jorge Fransica and Jorge Matilde 6-2, 3-6, 8-10 in the doubles semi-final.
Fransica-Matilde will face Greco-British pair of Valentini Grammatikopoulou and Eden Silva in the final on Saturday. Grammatikopoulou and Silva defeated Dalila Jakupovic of Slovakia and Amandine Hesse of France 6-1, 6-3.
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