Rutuja beats Ratnika to enter ITF tournament quarters

New Delhi -  Indian qualifier Rutuja Bhosale produced quality fare to beat national champion and doubles partner Ratnika Batra 6-3, 7-6(6) and entered the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF Women's tournament at the DLTA complex here Wednesday.

The 15-year-old from Mumbai had also beaten Ratnika in May to become one of the youngest players to win the Asian Junior Championship title.

The lanky, bespectacled player, who is coached by Sandeep Kirtane, had put up an impressive show in the qualifiers and carried the momentum in the main draw with a straight-set victory over South Africa's Tegan Edwards in the first round.

Rutuja, serving sharp and hitting some terrific groundstrokes, did not allow Ratnika to settle and the Delhi girl's rash of unforced errors only made thing easier for the Mumbaikar Wednesday.

After closing the first set, Rutuja got off to a false start in the second. She dropped her serve in the first game but broke back immediately to draw level at 2-2. The set, there after, saw a plenty of break of serves with both players struggling to hold their service games.

Ratnika, making sporadic recoveries, twice had the chance at 5-4 and later at 6-5 to close the set but floundered and set stumbled into the tie-break.

She led 3-1 in the breaker and again held a set point at 6-5 only but hit a return long to squander the opportunity. A couple of errors gave Rutuja the match point and she converted it when a Ratnika backhand sailed long.

Rutuja next plays third-seeded Mexican Nadia Abdala who rallied to beat Turkmenistan's Anastasiya Prenko 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

The day, though, belonged to Polish qualifier Joanna Nalborska who shocked top seed and winner here a couple of weeks ago, Keren Shlomo of Israel 2-6,  6-0, 7-5.

Nalborska next plays China's Zhaoxuan Yang, who upset seventh-seeded Indian Ankita Raina, 6-1, 6-1.

Fourth-seeded Ashvarya Shrivastava played solid to brush aside big hitting Paticia Haas of Austria 6-2, 6-4. She next plays eighth-seeded compatriot Prerna Bhambri who made short work of the match against Nimisha Mohan 6-0,
6-1.

Second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi also advanced comfortably beating South Korean qualifier Ju-Eun Kim 6-4, 6-2. She meets another South Korean, sixth-seeded Hae-Sung Kim in the quarterfinals.