Sixth seed Ankita Raina was in robust form as she beat second seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-6(9) in the semifinals of the $60,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament here on Saturday.
It was a long day, as Ankita had earlier won her quarterfinals 10-6 in the super tie-break against Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey.
It was a gripping contest in the semifinals, as the second seed clawed her way back into the match after trailing 2-5 in the first set and 3-5 in the second. Ankita did miss five match points from 6-3 in the second set tie-break, but eventually sealed the issue 11-9.
In the final, Ankita will play top seed Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia, who outplayed Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 6-0, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, Sriram Balaji in partnership with Jonathan Erlich of Israel outplayed top seeds Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Christopher Rungkat 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles semifinals of the $162,480 Challenger in Chinese Taipei.
Balaji and partner will play fourth seeds Sander Arends of the Netherlands and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn of Austria in the final.
In the ATP event in Morocco, Leander Paes in partnership with Benoit Paire of France was beaten 10-5 in the super tie-break of the doubles semifinals by Jurgen Melzer and Franko Skugor. Leander and partner collected 90 ATP points and $8,240.
Arjun Kadhe did not drop serve in the whole match, but was beaten in two tie-breaks by Sadio Doumbia of France in the semifinals of the $25,000 ITF men’s Futures in Abuja.
The results: € 586,140 ATP, Marrakech, Morocco: Doubles (semifinals): Jurgen Melzer (Aut) & Franko Skugor (Cro) bt Benoit Paire (Fra) & Leander Paes 1-6, 6-3, [10-5].
$162,480 Challenger, Chinese Taipei: Doubles (semifinals): Jonathan Erlich (Isr) & Sriram Balaji bt Cheng-Peng Hsieh (Tpe) & Christopher Rungkat (Ina) 6-2, 6-3.
$60,000 ITF women, Istanbul, Turkey: Singles (semifinals): Ankita Raina bt Marie Bouzkova (Cze) 6-4, 7-6(9). Quarterfinals: Ankita Raina bt Cagla Buyukakcay (Tur) 6-4, 4-6, [10-6].
$25,000 ITF men, Abuja, Nigeria: Singles (semifinals): Sadio Doumbia (Fra) bt Arjun Kadhe 7-6(5), 7-6(0).
$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt: Doubles (final): Timur Kiyamov (Rus) & Eduardo Struvay (Col) bt Vasisht Cheruku & SD Prajwal Dev 6-3, 2-6, [10-5].