Ratnika, Bhambri enter semis of tennis event

Ranchi, Feb 21 (PTI) Delhi''s Ratnika Batra caused thebiggest upset of the day when she ousted second seed C Nidhiof Andhra Pradesh to storm into the last-four of the women''ssingles tennis event in the 34th National Games here today.

Ratnika will now take on Prerna Bhambri, who comfortablydefeated U M Shalaka of Karnataka 6-3, 6-3.

Top seed Sajjad will take on Maharashtra''s Nupur Kaul inthe other semis tomorrow.

Sajjad thrashed Karnataka''s Prerna Prathap 6-4 6-4 whilefourth seeded Nupur Kaul defeated Grace Hanah of Tamil Nadu6-1 6-1.

In the men''s singles, Vivek Shokeen, seeded seventh,faced a stiff challenge from third seed UP''s Lakshit Soodbefore wrapping the issue 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.

In the semifinal, Shokeen will take on top seed fromMaharashtra Karan Rastogi, who beat Suresh Krishna of Andhra6-2 6-4.

In the other half, Ashutosh Singh thrashed fourth seededChandril Sood of Uttar Pradesh 6-3 6-3 to set up a last-fourclash against second seed Mithun Murali from Tamil Nadu, whohad an easy 6-1 6-1 outing over state-mate Irfan Hussain. PTITAP SHN