Sahaja Yamalapalli in singles and Shrivalli Bhamidipathy with Vaidehi Chaudari in doubles were eliminated as the Indian challenge ended at the W35 Maha Urja Nagpur Open ITF Women’s Championships. The tournament is being organized by the Nagpur District Hard Court Tennis Association (NDHTA) and Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) under the auspices of the ITF, AITA, and played on the clay courts of the MSLTA Tennis Academy Tennis Complex at Ramnagar.
In the quarterfinal played today, unseeded Dayeon Back ended the run of fifth-seeded Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-4, 6-1 to enter the semifinal.
In the doubles semifinal, Korean Yeonwoo Ku and Lithuania’s Justina Mikulskyte stopped the Indian Pair of Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty and Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-2, 2-6, 10-8 in a close encounter.
In the other quarterfinal matches, runners-up at the Gurgaon event last week, Yeonwoo Ku of Korea kept her singles progress going as well, outpacing Russian Ekaterina Yashina 6-1, 6-0.
In the semis tomorrow, Ku will take on another Russian, Daria Kudashova, who carved out a 6-4, 6-3 win over Rinon Okuwaki of Japan.
Second-seeded Dalila Jakupovic remained the highest seed to survive in the tournament as she came back from the loss of the first set to stop a fighting seventh seed Miriana Tona of Italy 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. In the semifinals, Dalila will take on Dayeon Back.
In the doubles, Dalila, in partnership with Irina Maria Bara of Romania, also reached the finals as the top-seeded pair. Dalila scored a 7-5, 6-4 win over Yasmine Mansouri of France and Latvia’s Diana Marcinkevica.
The singles semifinals are scheduled at 10 am, and the doubles finals will be played at 2 pm on Saturday.
Results: Quarterfinal Round:
Dayeon Back (Kor) bt Sahaja Yamalapalli (Ind) [5] 6-4, 6-1; Yeonwoo Ku (Kor) bt Ekaterina Yashina (Rus) 6-1, 6-0; Daria Kudashova (Rus) bt Rinon Okuwaki (Jpn) 6-4, 6-3; Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) [2] bt Miriana Tona (Ita) [7] 5-7, 6-1, 6-2;
Doubles: Semifinal Round:
Yeonwoo Ku (Kor) [4] / Justina Mikulskyte (Ltu) bt Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty (Ind) / Vaidehi Chaudhari (Ind) 6-2, 2-6, 10-8; Irina Maria Bara (Rou) / Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) [1] bt Yasmine Mansouri (Fra) / Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) [3] 7-5, 6-4.