Giant killers Basak and Karen in semis of Pune ITF event

Turkey's Basak Eraydin and Israel's Karen Shlomo continued their dream run, making it to the semi-finals of the NECC ITF women's $25,000 tennis tournament, in Pune.

On a day when every match barring one went to the distance, unseeded Eraydin stunned Chinese fourth seed Sheng Nan Sun 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 after a two hour and six minutes battle.

Eraydin, who had upset fifth seed Perrin in first round, ran away with the first set before losing the second with identical margin.

In the decider, both players broke each other thrice as the score reached 5-5. Eraydin made a solid hold to go up 6-5, and broke Sun in the 12th to win her third consecutive three-set match in as many days.

Eraydin's reward would be a semi-final clash against top seed Nina Bratchikova, who survived a fierce three-setter against sixth seed Thai Noppawan Lertcheewakaran.

Bratchikova won the first set 7-5, and was serving at 5-3 in the second, where she wasted two match-points.

The Russian top seed had another match-point in the next game, but Lertcheewakaran came up with an unreachable backhand down-the-line, before eventually winning the set in the tie-breaker.

Bratchikova, however, had too much firepower for the Thai lass in the decider, as she raced through to a 4-1 lead.

Lertcheewakaran won two games in a rwo to reduce the deficit but the Russian won the next two games to seal her place in the semis.

Shlomo, who had shocked second seed Krunic in her opening Round, fought hard all the way against seventh seed Belarussian Ilona Kremen, winning 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.

After being completely outplayed in the first set, Shlomo chased down every ball, and forced Kremen to go for the lines, resulting in the Belarussian making more and more errors.

Shlomo won the encounter in an hour and 45 minutes. Her semi-final opponent would be third seed Slovenina Tadeja Majeric.

The error-prone Slovenian overcame the challenge from China's eighth seed Jia Jing Lu 3-6, 6-4, 6-0. After two evenly contested sets, Lu had no self-belief and strength in the decider, failing to win a single game.

Lu, with her sister Jia-Xiang, would have another go at Majeric on Friday in the doubles final, where the Slovenian is partnered by Swiss Conny Perrin.