Ankita Raina scripted a 4-6 6-2 6-4 comeback win over Sweden’s Jacqueline Cabaj Awad to make the singles semi-finals of the ITF Women’s Open on Friday.
The second-seeded Ankita will face Lithuanian third-seeded Justina Mikulskyte within the first semi-closing. Justina acquired the higher of Russian qualifier Ekaterina Kazionova 6-3 6-2.
In the opposite semi-closing, prime seed Dalila Jakkupovic can be up towards unseeded Yeonwoo Ku of South Korea, who raced previous Kazakhstan’s Zhibek Kulambayeva 6-0 6-3.
Ankita and Jacqueline held their respective serves till the fourth recreation, the place the Indian appeared to have some lapse in conceding the fifth recreation.
The Swede stepped it as much as race to five-2 lead earlier than Ankita tried a comeback. As she broke her opponent’s serve within the eighth recreation, moreover holding her serve within the ninth, Jacqueline finally served it out for the set.
Ankita bounced again within the second set, going up 3-0 with a break within the second recreation, whereas she additionally broke the Swede’s serve within the sixth recreation earlier than taking the set 6-2 with some artful cross-courtroom winners.
However, a few unforced errors proved expensive for the Indian within the opening recreation of the deciding set.
The 28-yr-previous Jacqueline earned a break and was up 4-2 earlier than Ankita upped the ante, forcing the previous to commit errors.
The 31-yr-previous Indian acquired a vital break within the eighth recreation, thus levelling the rating.
Carrying the momentum, Ankita took benefit of a tiring Jacqueline, breaking her serve within the eighth recreation and halting the Swede’s bid for her tenth ITF title.
The different Indian within the fray, Sahaja Yamalapalli put up a struggle towards Slovenian prime seed Dalila earlier than dropping 5-7 6-3 0-6.
Ankita additionally booked her place within the doubles closing partnering Zhibek Kulambayevam of Kazakhstan as they overcame the problem of the Indo-Japanese pair Riya Bhatia and Michika Ozeki 7-5 6-2.
The prime-seeded duo now have a date with the pair of Jacqueline and Justina Mikulskyte, who’re coming off a hit over the Korean-Latvian duo Yeonwoo Ku and Diana Marcinkevica 7-6 (7) 7-5 within the different semi-closing.
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – PTI)
