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Local lass Vanshita Pathania showed nerves of steel in a marathon match against the top seed Ramya Natarajan before prevailing over the fancied player and earn a semifinal berth in the Women’s category of the Rs 2-lakh prize money KSLTA-AITA Pro Circuit 2021 being played at the KSLTA Tennis Stadium here on Thursday. After a 4 hour-40 minute battle the 19-year-old Vanshita forged a superb comeback victory after being two macth points down in the second set, finally winning the match 4-6, 7-6 (5) 7-5.

Meanwhile one of the top contenders for the title in the Men’s category this week - Vishnu Vardhan retired without hitting a ball against Boopathy Shaktivel of Tamil Nadu owing to a back spasm. “I tried to swing but I felt a lot of pain. I didn’t want to take a chance as I will be playing the Fenesta Nationals next week,” said the former Asian Games medalist.

Results (Seedings in pre-fix, states in brackets)

Men’s Singles (Pre-quartrfinals)

1-Ishaque Eqbal (WB) bt Manish G (KA) 7-5, 6-3; 7-Arnav Pathange (KAR) bt LL-Shane Biddaiah (KAR) 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-2; Oges Theyjo J (TN) bt Hevanth Kumar (TS) 6-4, 6-3; 5-Vivek Gautam (KAR) bt Q-Raju M (KAR) 7-5, 4-6, 6-4;  8-S Kosaraju (AP) bt R Ayappan (TN) 6-4, 6-2; Boopathy Shaktivel (TN) bt 4-Vishnu Vardhan (TS) (Retd); Ishan Husain (TN) bt Rishiraj Shekhawat (RAJ) 6-4, 6-1; 2-Rishi Reddy (KAR) bt Karthic Kumaran (TN) 6-2, 6-1.

Women’s singles (Quarterfinals)

5-Vanshita Pathania (KAR) bt 1-Ramya Natarajan (TN) 4-6, 7-6 (5) 7-5; 4-Gayatri R Menon (KER) bt 8-Anusha Kondaveeti (AP) 6-0, 6-4; 3-Avishka Gupta (TS) bt Bala Gayathri Angam (TS) 6-2, 6-4; 7-Lalitya Kalluri (MAH) bt Yashika Venu (TN) 6-0, 6-0.