Second seed Isha Lakhani avenged her last week's defeat in the semi-finals by ousting Sonal Phadke in the quarter-finals of the $5000 ITF Masters women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Courts in Delhi on Wednesday.
Phadke, who had beaten Lakhani on her way to winning the title last week, was up 4-2 in the second set but then let her opponent off the hook.
Lakhani won 6-2, 7-5.
"I was a bit tired, and (there was) also a bit of loss of concentration," said Phadke after the match.
But there was no denying the excellent tennis played by Lakhani, the reigning national champion.
The two Mumbaikars have always shown extra competitiveness while playing each other. If Phadke, in the previous encounter, made it up for the defeat in the national championship final last year, it was Lakhani's turn to turn tables today.
Lakhani was on top right from the word go, breaking Phadke thrice in the first set. Phadke struggled to hold her serve, facing frequent break points as Lakhani played with aggression.
There was a brief change in the tide in the second set when the players traded breaks but Lakhani held serve on the tenth game and then stepped on the gas to break her opponent once more to win the set and match.
Top seed Liza Pereira had less to do as Kamini Murugaboopathy self-destructed to a 6-0, 6-2 loss in the other quarter-final. From the moment she double-faulted to drop serve in the very first game, Murugaboopathy was always imploding under unforced errors.
Ankita Bhambri needed an hour and 21 minutes to defeat Madhura Ranganathan 6-4, 6-3 although the scoreline does not reveal how closely the match was fought.
Shruti Dhawan played well in patches but was still good enough to get past Archana Venkataraman 6-3, 6-2.
In the semi-finals, Lakhani takes on Dhawan while Bhambri plays Pereira.
