Date:20/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/20/stories/2008112061852200.htm

Sport - Tennis

Noppawan stuns South

KOLKATA: Unseeded Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand stunned top seeded Melanie South of Great Britain 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $50,000 ITF women’s challenger here on Wednesday. Fourth seeded Agnes Szatmari of Romania was shown the door by unseeded Sophie Ferguson of Australia.

The Indian participation came to an end in both singles and doubles. Fifth seeded Sunitha Rao, one of the two Indians surviving in the singles, made too many errors before surrendering meekly to qualifier Emily Webley-Smith of Great Britain.

The results:

Singles: Pre-quarterfinals: Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (Tha) bt Melanie South (Gbr) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Elora Dabija (Rom) bt Leonie Mekel (Ned) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; Sophie Ferguson (Aus) bt Agnes Szatmari (Rou) 7-6(5), 6-4; Ksenia Palkina (Kgz) bt Julia Glushko (Isr) 7-5, 7-5; Kai-Chen Chang (Tpe) bt Suchanun Viratprasert (Tha) 6-0, 6-2; Bojana Jovanovski (Srb) bt Chia-Jung Chuang (Tpe) 6-3, 6-3; Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Sunitha Rao (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; 2-Ayumi Morita (Jpn) bt Sanaa Bhambri (Ind) 6-3,6-1.

Doubles: Quarterfinals: Jing-Jing Lu & Sheng-Nan Sun (Chn) bt Sunitha Rao (Ind) & Shikha Uberoi (Ind) 6-4, 5-7, (10-5); Sophie Ferguson (Aus) & Alexis Prousis (USA) bt Kai-Chen Chang & I-Hsuan Hwang (Tpe) 3-6, 7-6(4), (10-4); Laura Siegemund (Ger) & Agnes Szatmari (Rou) bt Ankita & Sanaa Bhambri (Ind) 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(9); Chin-Wei Chan & Yi Chen (Tpe) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi & Isha Lakhani (Ind) 6-4, 7-6(3). — Principal Correspondent