Isha outplays Rushmi, Ling downs Chae

Pune, Nov 15 (UNI) Eighth seeded Isha Lakhani of India will clash with Ling Zhang of Hong Kong, while Alexandra Panova will take on Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia in the semi-finals of the 25,000 dollar NECC-ITF women's tennis championships being played at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts here.

In the quarterfinals played today, the number eighth seeded Isha Lakhani outplayed veteran Rushmi Chakravarthy 6-1, 6-1 rather easily, while Zhang Ling stopped the run of Korean qualifier Kyung Yee Chae 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Russia's Alexendra Panova, ranked 670 in the world who upset third seeded Neha Uberoi, showed splendid form to halt the march of another qualifier Alexendra Kolesnichenko of Uzbekistan winning 6-3, 6-2.

Second seeded Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia also did not have to make much efforts and won rather easily against sixth seeded Silvia Disderi of Italy 6-3, 6-4.

The Lakhani-Chakravarthi match had promised much excitement, but turned out to be a damp squib as Isha played a near perfect game to outplay Chakravarthi on both flanks. Isha, who had recently won the national championship, rode on her confidence to completely dominate the proceedings and score a tame victory.

In the best match of the day, Zhang Ling, ranked 518 in the world, stopped the wonderful run of Korean qualifier Kyung Yee Chae 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a match lasting 1 hour 50 minutes, the longest match of the day.

Chae broke Ling in the 5th game in the first set to take the first set 6-3. In the second set, Ling played solid tennis from the baseline mixing her shots to break Chae in the 6th and 8th games and took the second set and levelled scores.

In the third set, Chae was broken in the very first game and the third game, but Chae showed promise of a comeback and broke Ling in the sixth game. But, Ling again broke Chae in the seventh game and held her serve to wrap up the issue.

Following are the results (quarter finals): Zhang Ling (HKG) bt Kyung Yee Chae (Kor) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; (8) Isha Lakhani bt Rushmi Chakravarthy 6-1, 6-1; Alexendra Panova (Rus) bt Alexendra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) 6-3, 6-2; (2) Sandy Gumulya (Ind) bt (6) Silvia Disderi (Italy) 6-3, 6-4.

UNI