Bhambri stretched by Sonal, moves to quarters

Mumbai, May 23 (UNI) Second seed Ankita Bhambri survived a scare from unseeded Sonal Phadke before entering the quarterfinals of the 10,000 dollar MSLTA-ITF Women's Circuit Tennis Tournament played at the G A Ranade Complex here today.

In another tough encounter that produced entertaining tennis, seventh seed Marianna Muchi-Torres of Venezuela was ousted from the singles after a 2 hour 41 minute long battle with unseeded Italian Glorgia Mortello of Italy. Mortello won 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi had no such trouble in beating 17-year-old Parija Maloo 6-2, 6-0. Fourth seed Marinne Giraud continued her good form with a 6-0, 6-0 win over youngster Adnya Naik.

After having survived a tough first round game against Parul Goswami that lasted over two hours, Ankita Bhambri was nearly bumped out of the tournament by Sonal Phadke in a marathon game that lasted almost four hours. Ankita dropped the first set in a tough tie breaker which she lost 7-4. It was an error strewn game that was getting Ankita in trouble as Sonal was content with keeping the ball in play.

Ankita, for the larger part of the game was battling with herself rather than her opponent as the unforced errors kept mounting.

Bhambri got her act together in the second set reducing the errors to win the set 7-5. Bhambri continued to go for her shots as the tiring players weren't trying to run too much in the third set.

Bhambri held her serve to win the match 6-7, 7-5, 6-3.

Meanwhile third seed Cassandra Barr of Australia continued her impressive run in the tournament so far as she steamrolled young gun Sweta Solanki to make her way to the quarterfinals. The 24-year-old from Melbourne was forced into a hard hitting game with Solanki.

Solanki seemed to have the power to match Barr but the control seemed to be lacking as she missed a number of opportunities to hurt Barr.

Barr, who said her strength is in her all round abilities, played some fine passing shots coupled with some great forehands to book a quarters berth.

It was a match between two foreign players that attracted the attention of the all present as seventh seed Mariana Much-Torres of Venezuela and unseeded Italian Glorgia Mortello battled it out for a quarters berth and some valuable points. Torres looked like she would beat the Italian as she claimed the first set 6-3 but Mortello battled back in a set that went back and forth to win the second set 6-4. The third set swung like a pendulum with errors creeping into the game of both players. The long rallies also seemed to take a toll as neither player could control the game. A bad line call took away Torres' focus as Mortello concerned herself only with the game to win 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in 2 hours and 41 minutes.

Mortello now faces second seed Ankita Bhambri in what is expected to be a tough contest. Top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi will face a formidable challenge from Swiss Fed Cupper Nicole Riner who dumped Poojashree Venkatesha out of the tournament with a 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5 win.

Results: Singles (2nd Rd): 1-Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) bt Parija Maloo (IND) 6-2, 6-0; Nicole Riner (SUI) bt Poojashree Venkatesha (IND) 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5; 3-Cassandra Barr (AUS) bt Sweta-Kumari Solanki (IND) 6-1, 6-0; 6-Meghha Vakaria (IND) bt Kelsey Sundaram (USA) 6-2, 6-3; Isha Lakhani (IND) bt Geeta Manohar (IND) 6-2, 6-3; 4-Marinne Giraud (MRI) bt Adnya Naik (IND) 6-0, 6-0; Georgia Mortello (ITA) bt 7-Mariana Much-Torres (VEN) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5; 2-Ankita Bhambri (IND) bt Sonal Phadke (IND) 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-3.

Doubles (Q/F): 1-Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Mariana Muchi-Torres (VEN) bt Sonal Phadke/ Archana Venkatraman (IND) 6-2, 6-1; 2-Ankita&Sanaa Bhambri (IND) bt Sagarika Phadke/ Ragini Vimal (IND) 6-1, 6-1; 3-Marinne Giraud (MRI)/ Isha Lakhani (IND) bt Parul Goswami/ Geeta Manohar (IND) 6-2, 6-2; Vishika Chhetri/ Poojashree Venkatesha (IND) bt 4-Asha Nandakumar/ Madura Ranganathan (IND) 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-2.

UNI