NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Sheetal Goutham recovers from the brink

Our Correspondent

Seventh seed Sheetal Goutham, who had a relatively easy first-round passage, almost made a mess of her pre-quarter encounter with Sonia Shelar, but stablised in the nick of time to score a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory at the SoulKurry.com-sponsored third leg of the ITF Women's Satellite Tennis championships, at the Poona Club courts, on Tuesday.

On a hot afternoon, Sheetal looked complacent and committed many unforced errors throughout the match. She lost the first set tamely, but came good in time to take the second rather narrowly. And, in the end, her the experience and better staying power saw her through.

Sheetal is next up against Shalini Thakur, who too had to regain her concentration to stay in the match against Pune wild card Ronak Shah before winning 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.

Top seed Sonal Phadke, winner of the first leg and runner-up in the ensuing one, served badly but made up for her handicap by playing her trademark baseline game to dictate her opponent Lisa Pereira in another last sixteen encounter. Sonal set up a quarter-final showdown with fifth seed Geeta Manohar, who comfortably blanked T Sricharanya 6-0, 6-3.

The Venkatraman sisters had a easy road into the quarters where they lost seven games between them. The elder one, Arthi, did one better, beating Sonali Sanap 6-0, 6-3, while Archana (No. 2 seed) went through 6-0, 6-4 against T Yamini.

The last quarter-final will see Megha Vakharia (No. 3) pitted against Radhika Mandke (No. 8).

Results (pre-quarter-finals):

SINGLES: 1-Sonal Phadke bt Lisa Pereira 7-5, 6-3; 5-Geeta Manohar bt T. Sricharanya 6-0, 6-3; 3-Megha Vakharia bt Karishma Patel 7-6(7-5), 6-3; 8-Radhika Mandke bt Aparna Singh 6-2, 6-0; 7-Sheetal Goutham bt Sonia Shelar 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; 4-Shalini Thakur bt Ronak Shah 6-1, 3-6, 6-2; 6-Arthi Venkataraman bt Sonali Sanap 6-0, 6-3; 2-Archana Venkataraman bt T Yamini 6-0,6-4.

DOUBLES: T. Sricharanya/Rati Kumar bt Aparna Singh/Kalpita Raje 6-1,6-1; Radhika Mandke/Sonia Shelar bt Shraddha Loddha/Ronak Shah 6-0,6-1; Geeta Manohar/T Yamini bt Rekha Natarjan/Marutha Devi 6-2,6-1; Isha Lakhani/Megha Vakharia bt Sonali Sanap/Karishma Mulay 6-1, 6-1.