Indian tennis players remained in line for titles in both singles and doubles this week.
In singles, India No 1 Ankita Raina rallied to beat lower-ranked Eudice Wong Chong to reach the semi-finals of the $60,000 ITF event in Luan, China on Friday.
The second seeded Indian, ranked 175, came back from a one-set deficit to beat her Hong Kong rival 2-6 6-4 7-5 in a nearly two-hour long quarter-final. It turned out to be a very close game, with Raina winning 88 points, just two more than her opponent who is ranked 497.
The 26-year-old has a chance to make her third final of the season as she faces seventh seed Chinese Shuyue Ma in the semis.
“It was a tough match, happy that I pulled off this one. In first set she started well and was not missing much. When I moved her around, I started coming back, so I persisted with the strategy,” Raina told PTI.
“She played really well. I enjoyed the match and was in control in second and third sets,” the 26-year-old added.
In doubles, the unseeded pair of Vishnu Vardhan and Toshihide Matsui continued their good run to storm into the final of the ATP Challenger in Busan. A day after their win over fourth seeds, the pair beat Andre Goransson and Hunter Reese 6-4, 7-5.
At the Shymkent Challenger in Kazakhstan, fourth seeds Arjun Kadhe, and Denis Yevseyev beat the Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov 4-6, 6-3, [10-7] in the doubles quarter-finals.
ITF Results
At the $15,000 ITF event in Kampala, Uganda, Aryan Goveas retires in his singles match
against Jullius Tverijonas trailing 7-6(1), 3-1.
At the $15,000 ITF event in Antalya, Turkey, Viktoriya Gogol beat Jennifer Luikham 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.