ITF women’s tennis: Rutuja, Vaidehi, Zeel in quarters

Pune, March 11 : Three Indians — fourth seed Rutuja Bhosale, seventh seed Zeel Desai, and wildcard Viadehi Chaudhari — entered the singles quarterfinals of the $25000 ITF WTT Cup Tennis Championships on Thursday.
In the second round matches played, local favourite Rutuja ended the good run of qualifier Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi 6-1, 6-3 in one hour 10 minutes. Seventh seeded Zeel Desai continued to impress as she came back from the loss of first set to end the challenge of Fed Cup player Sowjanya Bavisetti 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a 2 hour 17 minutes battle.
Vaidehi Chaudhari justified the organisers faith in awarding her a wild card stopping giant killer Soha Sadiq 6-4, 6-2 and enter her first quarterfinals at this level.
In other matches, third seeded Laura Pigossi of Brazil but settled in Spain outplayed qualifier Nidhi Chilumula 6-0, 6-3.
Seasoned sixth seeded Emily Webley-Smith of Great Britain tackled a young Jasmin Jebawy of Germany 6-4, 6-3.
Eighth seeded and former top 100 player Irina Khromacheva proved a bit strong for Mihika Yadav securing a 6-2, 6-2 win while second seeded Miriam Bianca Bulgaru Romania served out Ramya Natarajan 6-3, 6-1. Fifth seeded Marianna Zakarlyuk of Ukraine didn’t spend much time on the court as her opponent Pia Lovric Slovenia Conceded with the scores being 3-1.