Date:12/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/12/stories/2006051200321900.htm

Sport - Tennis

Sandhya Nagaraj in last four

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Sandhya Nagaraj knocked out second seed Song Shan-Shan of China 6-4, 6-3 to enter the semifinals of the Oil India Limited $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

The 17-year-old put up a steady fare even as Song struggled to consistently play her high-quality game. Though she got broken thrice in the match, Sandhya played a confident game and hit her strokes with considerable thought.

In going for variation, she did attempt some injudicious strokes, but overall, Sandhya was in control of the proceedings.

The Chinese girl bounced back as she broke Sandhya at love for 4-5, but tended to spray her shots wide and promptly lost the next game and the first set.

Into the second set, Sandhya doublefaulted to drop serve in the third game, but won the next four games thanks mainly to Song's wayward strokeplay.

To her credit, Sandhya was able to retain her focus and served out the match in style to set up a semifinal clash with Sonal Phadke, who earlier outclassed the third-seeded Paarul Goswami.

Asha excels

Qualifier Asha Nandakumar continued to excel, as she dismissed the challenge from the seventh-seeded Archana Venkataraman. The 18-year-old from Bangalore will be up against fourth seed Zhao Yi-Jing of China, an easy-stroking left-hander who stopped Geeta Manohar effortlessly.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Asha Nandakumar bt Archana Venkataraman 6-3, 6-1; Zhao Yi-Jing (Chn) bt Geeta Manohar 6-2, 6-1; Sonal Phadke bt Paarul Goswami 6-3, 6-2; Sandhya Nagaraj bt Song Shan-Shan (Chn) 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): Song Shan-Shan/Zhao Yi-Jing bt Tegan Edwards (RSA)/Sonal Phadke 6-1, 6-3; Rushmi Chakravarthi/Archana Venkataraman bt Paarul Goswami/Geeta Manohar 6-4, 6-2.