Jayalakshmi shocks Kozhokina

Former national champion Sai Jayalakshmi upset the applecart of seventh seeded Russian Ekaterina Kozhokina but three other Indians fell by the wayside in the quarter-finals of the $25,000 ITF women's tennis tournament in Delhi on Thursday.

Sai, who struggled against third seeded Katarina Daskovic of Yugoslavia on Wednesday, breezed past her quarter-final rival in just under an hour 4-1, 4-2, 4-1 to keep India's hopes alive.

The India number three put up an excellent show of baseline tennis and used her forehand placements to perfection to outsmart Kozhokina.

Sai now meets giant-killer Lenka Dlhopolcova of Slovakia in the semi-finals on Friday.

Dlhopolcova, who got past top seed Eva Krejcova of the Czech Republic in the second round, crushed the hopes of India's Shruti Dhawan 4-2, 4-1, 4-1 in just 56 minutes.

A resurgent Dhawan, who had a good outing in the first two rounds, failed to use her powerful services to any effect as the Slovakian pounded powerful groundstrokes.

Russia's Olga Kalijnaia and the winner of last week's $10,000 ITF event Urska Vesenjak will face-off in the other semi-final.

The Europeans dashed the other Indian hopes Jyotsana Vasisht and promising Sonal Phadke.

The Kalijnaia-Vasisht match lasted one hour and 33 minutes as the Indian stretched her opponent to the distance in the first set.

Vasisht made a valiant bid against Kalijnaia as the first set went into the tie-breaker. The Russian was tentative at the start but after being tied at 5-5, she broke away to claim the first set 5-4 (7/5).

Vasisth's resilience then gave off as Kalijnaia converted all break-points to wrap up the issue taking next two sets 4-2, 4-2.

Sonal Phadke gave Urska a taste of her game but it was not enough.

After the Slovenian had taken the first set 4-0, Phadke forced a tie-breaker in the next which Urska won 5-4 (7/3) before grabbing the third one 5-3.