The winds, which followed the unseasonal rain swept away top seed Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia who was undone by third seed Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania in a three-setter 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (0) while second seed Ankita Raina succumbed to the unseeded Korean Yeonwoo Ku 6-7 (4), 3-6. In the semifinals of the Federal Bank ITF Women’s Open here on Saturday.
Later, Ankita joined hands with Zhibek Kulambayeva to lift the women’s doubles title. The Indo-Kazakh pair brushed aside the challenge of Jacqueline Cabaj Awad of Sweden and Justina Mikulskyte in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.
The winners bagged US $ 1437 and 35 WTA points for their effort while the runners-up were richer by US $ 719 and 23 WTA points.
In the singles semifinals, Ankita found herself on the wrong foot in the opening game itself where she lost her serve. The 31-year-old warmed up only by the third game as she erased a 0-2 deficit and led 3-2 with a break in the fourth game.
However, she lost her serve once again in the 7th game which facilitated a tie-breaker. Relying heavily on her double handed backhand, Ankita found herself a bit short, losing 4-7.
Things replicated in the second set for the first five games, where Ankita once again after trailing 0-2, was leading 3-2 with a break in the third and the fifth game.
However, the 20-year-old Yeonwoo moved better on court and with deft placing of the ball troubled her fancied opponent often which made Ankita commit a lot of unforced errors.
Yeonwoo who would be vying for her third ITF Title on the morrow, won four games in a row with two breaks in the 6th and 8th games to wrap up the set and the match.