Paterson ends Sai's stay

By Kamesh Srinivasan

CHANDIGARH, APRIL 18. Qualifier Karen Paterson continued her victory march with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 triumph over the top-seeded Sai Jayalakshmy in the quarterfinals of the $ 10,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament at the CLTA Stadium here on Wednesday.

After a nervous start when she made uncharacteristic mistakes, the 18-year-old Karen played like a champion in overcoming the 24-year-old Sai, who had the ability but lacked the self-belief to put the lesser ranked player in her place.

For someone ranked 1196 on the WTA computer, with only 1.75 points from about seven tournaments in Portugal, Greece and at home in Britain, it was a big morale-booster for the strong Karen, who has already assured herself of 4.75 WTA points including two quality points for beating the 358th ranked Sai and the 498th ranked Shruti Dhawan.

As the match progressed Karen realised that it was her opponent who was more nervous and less sure of her game. Once she got the chance, which Sai was presenting at every turn, Karen unleashed her powerful game to make the semifinals.

Sai led 5-2 in the first set, before dropping two games at love. She did well to hold serve at love, in winning the first set in the tenth game, though it had to be conceded that Karen made all the mistakes in that game.

In the second set, Sai led 4-3 after an initial exchange of breaks, but got broken at love in the next game. She saved two setpoints in the tenth game but succumbed to the third on a doublefault.

The Briton was back at her best in the third set, serving hard and hitting with confidence. She served one of her five aces to save a breakpoint in the third game, and controlled the finish thereafter. Sai faced three breakpoints in the sixth game, and served one of her nine doublefaults in dropping serve.

Sai did well to save a matchpoint in holding serve in the eighth game, but was unable to stretch the fight any further, than saving another matchpoint in the next game. The fact that she had played few singles matches this season showed as Sai erred with her basics, rarely moving into her strokes for clean hits.

It should be an interesting contest when Karen meets another talented youngster, the 18-year-old Dea Sumantri of Indonesia, who humbled Sheetal Goutham for the loss of two games.

``I am happy to have progressed this far. I haven't seen Dea play, but will try to play my best'', said Karen, who did not drop a game in winning the only qualifying round before the main event.

The eighth-seeded Jyotsna Vasisht continued with her good run as she beat an unusually lethargic Radhika Tulpule in straight sets. The 22-year-old Jyotsna served well and played her strokes freely, not worrying about the percentage of success, to wrest the initiative from the 670th ranked Radhika, who struggled with her service rhythm.

The 600th ranked Jyotsna will have the toughest challenge when she meets the fourth-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi who dismissed Nicola Payne of Britain for the loss of one game. In fact, the 467th ranked Rushmi reeled off 10 games in a row before the seventh-seeded Britain saved two matchpoints in holding serve for a token game.

Jyotsna has not dropped a set so far in the tournament, but Rushmi has dropped only seven games in winning three matches, including the one against a foreigner. Either way, an Indian will have a chance for a final fling at the title.

The results (Indians unless specified):

Singles (quarterfinals): Karen Paterson (GBR) bt Sai Jayalakshmy 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; Dea Sumantri (Ina) bt Sheetal Goutham 6-1, 6-1; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Nicola Payne (GBR) 6-0, 6-1; Jyotsna Vasisht bt Radhika Tulpule 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Sai Jayalakshmy & Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Donna Calvert & Debbie Carr (Aus) 6-0, 6-1; Sheetal Goutham & Shalini Thakur bt Marutha Devi & Jasleen Randhawa 6-0, 6-0; Dea Sumantri (Ina) & Radhika Tulpule bt Medini Sharma & Archana Venkataraman 6-1, 6-0; Shruti Dhawan & Jyotsna Vasisht bt Karen Paterson & Nicola Payne 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Karen Paterson & Nicola Payne (GBR) bt Veronika Ctvrtnickova (Cze) & Keiko Tameishi (Jpn) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); Shruti Dhawan & Jyotsna Vasisht bt Preeti Rao & Samrita Sekar 6-1, 6-3.

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