Third seed Sai Jayalakshmi of India and fourth seed Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan rallied magnificently after dropping the first set against lesser-know opponents to move into the women's singles quarter-finals in the $10,000 ITF-Futures tennis tournament (second leg) at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Former National champion Jayalakshmi made heavy weather of her pre-quarter-final match against qualifier Ludmila Rozsivalova Richetrova of the Czech Republic. She dropped the first set 2-6, before outplaying the Czech in the next two and winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and fifteen minutes.
Amanmuradova, the hard-hitting Uzbek who won the first leg of the circuit, also lost the first set tamely, at 3-6, but rallied strongly to sideline unseeded Julia Vorobieva of Russia 3-6, 7-6(7-1), 6-1 in an hour and 55 minutes.
Indian qualifier Liza Pereira went down fighting to fifth seed Chin-Bee Khoo of Malaysia 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and ten minutes in another pre-quarter-final while top seed Manisha Malhotra and second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi (both from India) recorded straight set wins against unseeded opponents.
Former National champion Malhotra took a little over an hour to subdue Chattida Thimjapo of Thailand 6-2, 6-3 while Rushmi, the first leg runner-up at the Cricket Club of India last week, needed as much time to drub Diana Costa of Portugal 6-3, 6-2.
