A determined Sai Jayalakshmi rallied superbly to upset local favourite Ankita Bhambri in the semi-finals of the US $10,000 ITF women's tournament in Chennai on Friday.
The eighth seeded Jayalakshmi had to fight tooth and nail before overcoming Ankita 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(7/3) in two hours 45 minutes and setting up a title clash with top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi.
It was also sweet revenge for the experienced Tamil Nadu lass, who was suffering from a tennis elbow, as she had lost to the same opponent in the Lucknow leg of the tournament a couple of months ago.
In the other semi-final, Rushmi advanced to the final after her third seed opponent, Montinee Thangphong of Thailand, conceded the match following a knee injury.
Rushmi had taken the first set 6-1 and was leading 1-0 in the second when the Thai girl threw in the towel.
Montinee, partnering Thassha Vitayaviroj, also conceded the doubles final, scheduled later in the day, to the duo of Rushmi and Jayalakshmi.
Earlier, a lethargic looking Jayalakshmi was broken in the eighth game as she lost the first set 6-3. Ankita earned two break-points in the ninth game, which she converted as well to win the set.
But Jayalakshmi, who had made a first round exit in last week's event at the same venue, rallied from the loss and a 0-3 deficit to win the second set 6-4.
In the decider, Ankita raced to a three-game lead, but Jayalakshmi came back strongly to take the set in the tie-breaker.
A frustrated Ankita threw her racquet in disgust and it hit the foot of the line umpire. She was penalised for racquet abuse.
