Rati Kumar in last eight

Eighteen-year-old Rati Kumar of Nagpur joined India Federation Cup players Radhika Tulpule, Sai Jayalakshmi and Sheetal Goutham in the quarter-finals of the $ 5000 ITF women's tennis championship, being played at the C P Club courts in Nagpur, on Wednesday.

Rati beat Nandini Perumal 6-2, 6-3.

Serving strongly, the well-built Rati raced to a 5-1 lead in the opening set before winning it 6-2. Only a brief resistance from Perumal in the early part of the second set checked an otherwise smooth win for Rati, which came in a little under an hour.

Second seed Tulpule showed greater variety and experience in outclassing up-and-coming junior Ankita Bhambri 6-4, 6-1.

National grasscourt champion Jayalakshmi made short work of the only foreign entry in Eveline Rusianto of Indonesia, winning 6-2, 6-1.

Fifth seed Goutham coasted to comfortable 6-3, 6-1 victory over Vandana Murli.

Mumbai leg winner Samrita Sekar continued her good form to prevail over Medini Sharma 6-3, 6-4 while Isha Lakhani accounted for Kamini Murgaboopaty 6-0, 6-2.

Liza Pereira and Sonal Phadke completed the quarter-final line-up, the former beating Anupama Rajur 7-5, 6-2.

Yesterday's report
Isha Lakhani topples Archana Venkataraman