Sai had set up the match-point after leaving Archana stranded at the net with neat placings and drop shots. However, the latter gave her best effort and managed to keep the game.

Archana had received a new lease of life and she encashed on two unforced errors from Sai to break the second seed in the next game. All Archana needed to do after that, was hold the serve. She did that without too much trouble, winning thee match 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. The quarter-final, lasting two hours 29 minutes in a hot Delhi morning, was the longest in the tournament and once again gave indications of Archana's improving standards.

Earlier, another lady too showed signs of improvement. Russia's AnnaNefedova took the heat in her stride, to come to her elements in her third meet in India this season. She beat the top seed Radhika Tulpule 6-3, 6-4 to move into a semi-final clash with Tamil Nadu's Rushmi Chakravarthi who ended youngster Sheethal Goutham's run 6-3, 6-1 in the quarter-final.

Radhika got the first break in the fourth game of the first set and, incidentally, that was the last game she won in the set. Anna got the odd break in the second game of the second set, and held on to win the match in one hour 15 minutes.

The Russian, however, has a difficult task at hand tomorrow when she meets Rushmi Chakravarthi for a place in the final. Rushmi was rarely troubled against Goutham Sheethal and took just 55 minutes to vanquish her 6-3, 6-1. Chakravarthi ran away with a 3-0 lead in the very first set, and it was quite clear that Sheethal would not be able to last long.

Rushmi allowed Sheethal just one game in the second set, wrapping it up in 25 minutes.

The other quarter-final of the day sawveteran Janaki Krishnamoorthy going down to Shruti Dhawan, the fourth seed, 6-4, 6-3. It was once again the more agile Shruti moving on the court swifter than her opponent, which made the difference.

Janaki and Radhika later lost to Sai and Rushmi in the doubles semi-final. The winners will taken on Sheethal and Shruti, who beat Arathi and Archana Venkatraman, for the title.

Results

Singles (QFs): Anna Nefedova bt Radhika Tulpule 6-2 6-4; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Sheetal Gautham 6-3 6-1; Shruti Dhawan bt Janaki Krishnamoorthy 6-4 6-3; Archana Venkatraman bt Sai Jayalakshmy 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

Doubles (semis): Sai Jayalakshmy/ Rushmi Chakravarthy bt Radhika Tulpule/ Janaki Krishnamoorthy 6-2 6-3; Shruti Dhawan/ Sheetal Gautham bt Archana Venkatraman/ Aarthi Venkatraman 6-4 6-0.

Top billing for Srinath

NEW DELHI: India's Prahlad Srinath has been top seeded in the first leg of Indian ITF Men's Satellite Tennis Tournament starting in Bangalore on May 17.

Twelve Indians and eightforeign players have been given direct entry into the 32-player main draw after International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced the acceptance list today.

Russia's Artem Derepasko, ranked 552 on ATP computer, is the second seed with Davis Cupper Syed Fazaluddin seeded third, All India Tennis Association (AITA) general secretary Ramesh Desai announced here today. Four wild card entrants will be named later.

There will be eight places up for grabs through a qualifying tournament, and with majority of foreign players staying away from the circuit following severe summer, indians will have excellent opportunity to pick valuable ATP points. Sixteen players making it to the masters will earn the ATP points.

Mumbai will host the second leg from May 24 to 29 and Delhi is the venue for both -- third leg (May 31 to June 5) and the Masters (June 7-12).

Direct entrants (in seeding order): Prahlad Srinath, Artem Derepasko, Syed Fazaluddin, Vinod Sridhar, Alexander Sikanov (Russia), Dimitri Mazur(Uzbekistan), Sandeep Kirtane, Harsh Mankad, Vijay Kannan, Ashley Ford (Australia), Nitin Kirtane, Sanzaruz Zaman, Mustafa Ghouse, Steven Bourke (Australia), Minh Le (US), Vijendra Laad, Anton Kokurin (Uzbekistan), Rivi Kiran Bhat, Vishal Uppal, Syed Nasir Ali Sherazi (Pakistan).