MUMBAI, FEB 25: Jahnavi Parekh was the last Indian standing on the third day of the $10,000 American Express ITF Women's Circuit tennis tournament at the Cooperage Tennis Centre today.The four other Indians in the second round fell by the wayside while Jahnavi stormed into the last eight with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Nicole Remis (Austria).Rushmi Chakravarthi, after playing ``perfect tennis'' on Monday, ``did nothing right'' against second seed Abigail Tordoff (Britain) to lose 3-6, 0-6 in 55 minutes. The 18-year-old from Kent, who was the top-ranked junior in her country for three years till last year, will play Jahnavi in the semis provided both win tomorrow. Tordoff is also the only seed left in the draw.
Arati Ponappa, who played near flawless tennis yesterday, was another to do ``nothing right''. The error-prone former national champion succumbed to the hard-hitting Swiss girl Marylene Losey 2-6, 2-6 in an hour. The Bangalore girl committed 16 unforced errors and four double faults -- one at break pointin the second set -- before hitting a volley long at match point.
J Sai Jayalakshmy went down 3-6, 0-6 to Shiho Hisamatsu (Japan) and later admitted that her opponent gave her no chance at all. ``She was just all over me, was too quick and before I realised, I had lost the first set. I could not recover after that.''
Motoe Uchida (Japan) went down to Chinese Rong Liu Zhi 5-7, 6-2, 5-7 after leading 5-2 in the final set. The Chinese girl pulled back to 4-5 when Uchida got her final chance to secure the match with a match point on Rong's serve. Rong saved it and went on to take the match in two hours and 15 minutes.
PAREKH POWER: Jahnavi, the only Indian left in the draw, took full advantage of an erratic Remis to stay in the competition. The Austrian was let down by her service, which included six double faults, and her own temperament.
``She committed too many errors and that helped me along,'' said Jahnavi later. ``I played as well as I did on Monday but my opponent this time was moreinconsistent.''
With the service being broken in all the games from the fifth to the 10th, Jahnavi held in the 11th game of the opening set. Remis served a double fault and netted a forehand in the next game to lose the set.
In the second set, Jahnavi broke service in the fourth and sixth games and hit a backhand cross court on match point in the seventh to complete the one-hour-12 minute demolition job.
RESULTS
Singles second round (country and world ranking in parenthesis):Jahnavi Parekh (Ind, 721) bt Nicole Remis (Aut, 425) 7-5, 6-1; Diane Asensio (Sui, 749) bt Archana Venkatraman (Ind) 6-3, 6-3; Yang Qin (Chn, 696) bt Jing Jing Chen (Chn, 370) 6-3, 7-5; Rong Liu Zhi (Chn) bt Motoe Uchida (Jap) 7-5, 2-6, 7-5; Abigail Tordoff (Gbr, 369) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind, 682) 6-3, 6-0; Marylene Losey (Sui, 623) bt Arati Ponappa 6-2, 6-2 (Ind, 865); Naomi Urabe (Jap, 450) bt Julia Adlbrecht (Aut, 684) 6-2, 6-1; Shiho Hisamatsu (Jap, 596) bt J Sai Jayalakshmy (Ind) 6-3, 6-0.
Doublessecond round: Angela Burgis/Diane Asensio (Sui) bt Nina Schwarz (Aut)/Rong Liu Zhi (Chn) 6-2, 6-4; Yoriko Yamagishi/Nami Urabe (Jap) bt Sandra Mantler/Julia Adlbrecht (Aut) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); Jing Jing Chen/Qin Yang (Chn) bt Marylene Losey (Sui)/Tina Parits (Aut) 6-2, 6-3; Rei Otakeyama/Shiho Hisamatsu (Jap) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi/Arati Ponappa (Ind) 6-4, 6-2.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
