Sport - Tennis

Prerana gets past Gasanova

GURGAON: Prerana Mythri fought her way past Elina Gasanova of Russia for a 6-4, 6-4 win in the pre-quarterfinals of the ITF women’s tennis tournament here on Wednesday.

Despite struggling with her serve that saw her getting broken four times in the match, the 17-year-old Prerana exercised admirable patience during the rallies and hit consistently well to beat the temperamental Russian.

Gasanova, too, struggled with her serve, delivering 13 double faults, and that made Prerana’s task easier, especially during the crunch.

The Bhambri sisters, Ankita and Sanaa, set up a quarterfinal clash after winning in contrasting styles. While Ankita breezed past qualifier Mu-Ying Chen of Chinese Taipei conceding just one game, Sanaa had to work her way past Cassandra Chan of Australia after losing the first set.

In the bottom half of the draw, Rushmi Chakravarthi was the only Indian to make the quarterfinals. She recovered after losing serve in the first game to outplay the inexperienced Prerna Bhambri.

Parija Maloo started on a bright note and despite playing well throughout the two-hour duel, the eighth seed could not find a way to beat qualifier Thuy-Dung Nguyen of Vietnam.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Isha Lakhani bt Parul Goswami 6-2, 6-2; Prerana Bhambri bt Elina Gasanova (Rus) 6-4, 6-4; Ankita Bhambri bt Mu-Ying Chen (Tpe) 6-1, 6-0; Sanaa Bhambri bt Cassandra Chan (Aus) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2; Sung-Hee Han (Kor) bt Poojashree Venkatesh 4-6, 6-3, 6-0; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Prerna Bhambri 6-2, 6-1;Thuy-Dung Nguyen (Vie) bt Parija Maloo 2-6, 6-3, 6-2; Chun-Yan He (Chn) bt Madura Ranganathan 5-7, 5-2 (retd).

Doubles (quarterfinals): Ankita Bhambri & Sanaa Bhambri w.o. Madura Ranganathan & Shivika Burman; Rushmi Chakravarthi & Geeta Manohar bt Prerna Bhambri & Garima Vatwani 6-4, 6-1; Angelina Gabueva (Rus) & Julia Moria