Down and out for the count, India’s Tanisha Kashyap held her nerve under pressure to put it past American Paola Lopez in the quarterfinals of the $15,000 SKME ITF Open at the KSLTA Tennis Stadium here on Friday.

Down 2-5 in the decider, the 22-year-old retrieved everything that was thrown at her and forced her rival into errors en route to a thrilling 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 7-5 win in a marathon match lasting three hours and 10 minutes.

Tanisha’s Houdini act saw her set up a semifinal meeting with New Caledonia’s fourth-seeded Carolann Delaunay, who outplayed the error-prone Soha Sadiq 6-1, 6-4 in another quarterfinal.

In the other semifinal, second-seeded Vaishnavi Adkar takes on fellow Indian Akanksha Nitture. While Vaishnavi outclassed Russia’s Arina Arifullina 6-0, 6-2, Akanksha put it past giant-killer Abhaya Vemuri 6-3, 6-1.

In a match between equals, both in their shot-making and their grunting, Tanisha came back strongly after losing the first set, -- after being up 5-2 at one stage -- allowing her rival just one game in the second.

However, Lopez began to call the shots and was seemingly on cruise mode in the decider. She took a 5-2 lead with a break of serve in the fourth game. But for some strange reason, the American pressed the self-destruct button, making errors left, right, and centre.

Tanisha wasn’t complaining. The Indian, running low on fuel, kept the ball in play and allowed Lopez to do the rest. She broke the American, who had three double faults, in the ninth game and again in the 11^th game to take a 6-5 lead. Tanisha then served out for the match without much ado.

SOHA-AKANKSHA PAIR IN SEMIS

The Bengaluru-based Soha then put her singles setback behind her and made the semifinals in doubles alongside partner Akanksha Nitture. The reigning National champions brushed aside the challenge of Harshini N Nagaraj and Snigdha Kanta 6-2, 6-1 in the quarters.

Winners of the Fenesta Open two weeks ago, Soha and Akanksha had earlier outclassed Smriti Bhasin and Denmark’s Elena Jamshidi duo for the loss of just one game in the first round.

Semifinal line-up: 8-Tanisha Kashyap (Ind) vs 4-Carolann Delaunay (Cal); 2-Vaishnavi Adkar (Ind) vs 7-Akanksha Nitture (Ind) 6-2, 6-1.

Results (Prefix denotes seeding, Indians unless mentioned):

Singles (Quarters): 2-Vaishnavi Adkar bt 5-Arina Arifullina (Rus) 6-0, 6-2; 4-Carolann Delaunay (Cal) bt 6-Soha Sadiq 6-1, 6-4; 7-Akanksha Nitture bt Abhaya Vemuri 6-3, 6-1; 8-Tanisha Kashyap (Ind) bt Paola Lopez (USA) 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 7-5.

Doubles: Quarters: 2-Soha Sadiq/ Akanksha Nitture bt Harshini N Nagaraj/ Snigdha Kanta 6-2, 6-1; 1-Humera Baharmus/ Pooja Ingale bt Disha Behera/ Arzan Khorakiwala 6-1, 6-1.

Round 1: Harshini/ Snigdha Kanta bt Siri Patil/ Anvi Punaganti 6-3, 6-3; Disha/ Khorakiwala bt Laalitya Kalluri/ Prisha Vyas (USA) 3-6, 6-4, 10-2; Akanksha/ Soha bt Smriti Bhasin/ Elena Jamshidi (Den) 6-1, 6-0; SS Chilakalapudi/ C Delaunay bt Kashish Bhatia/ Bela Tamhankar 6-1, 6-3; H Baharmus/ P Ingale bt Mile Cibulskyte (Ltu)/ Sameeksha Shroff 6-4, 6-0; D Bhatia/ S Samhitha bt Polina Kaibekova/ Ralina Kalimullina (Rus) 1-6, 6-4, 10-7; A Arifullina (Rus)/ JL Saw (Mas) bt Abhaya Vemuri/ Sonal Patil 7-6 (7-2), 6-4; Shria Atturu (USA)/ Saumya Vig bt Abhilasha Bista (Nep)/ Paavanii Paathak 6-3, 6-4, 10-6.

CAPTION: PIX-1: India’s Tanisha Kashyap makes a low backhand return during her win over American Paola Lopez in the SKME ITF Open in Bengaluru on Friday.

PIX-2: India’s Tanisha Kashyap celebrates a point during her win over American Paola Lopez in the SKME ITF Open in Bengaluru on Friday.

PIX-3: New Caledonia’s Carolann Delaunay returns to India’s Soha Sadiq in the quarterfinals of the SKME ITF Open in Bengaluru on Friday.

PIX-4: India’s Vaishnavi Adkar goes for a two-handed backhand return during her match against Russia’s Arina Arifullina in the quarterfinals of the SKME ITF Open in Bengaluru on Friday.