Michika ozeki

Open Gurugram W35: Ankita Raina and Sahaja Yamplapalli were the only two Indians left in the fray in the singles main draw after they advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITF Women’s Open Gurugram W35 being played at The Tennis Project here on Thursday. Ankita seeded second overcame fighting but yet error-prone Zeel Desai 7-6(4), 6-3 while fifth seed Sahaja faced stiff resistance from wild card entrant Riya Bhatia before prevailing with a 7-6(8), 7-5 margin.

Two other Indians who played the last 16 – Rashmikaa Srivalli Bhamidipaty and Vaishnavi Adkar bowed out but not before staging a brilliant fight against their seeded opponents. While Srivalli lost to seventh seed Jacqueline Cabaj Awad of Sweden after having the advantage of winning the first set 6-1 and then losing 3-6, 6-7(5). Vaishnavi’s journey was halted by the top seed Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia 6-7(1), 3-6.

In women's doubles, Riya Bhatia joined hands with Michika Ozeki of Japan to upset the third-seeded pair of Anastasia Gasanova and Ekaterina Yashina to enter the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Ankita also made it to the last four with her Kazakhstan partner Zhibek Kulambayeva beating the all-Japanese pair of Akiko Omae and Ikumi Yamazaki 7-5, 7-6(9).