Pranjala Yadlapalli caused a major upset, defeating third seed Snehadevi S Reddy, in an all-India girls' singles quarter-final at the CCI-ITF Juniors (under-18) tennis championship at the Cricket Club of India courts in Mumbai on Thursday.
Thirteen-year-old Pranjala, who won the under-16 singles title at the CCI Ramesh Desai Memorial All-India Ranking Nationals last May, showed great character as she outsmarted her senior opponent in straight sets, winning 6-3, 7-6(3) to advance to the semi-finals.
Pranjala now runs into second seed Hana Mortagy of Egypt, who prevailed over India's sixth seed Dhrithi Tatachar Venugopal 6-3, 7-6(9) in another quarter-final.
India's top seed Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy, who is also from Hyderabad, too entered the semi-finals.
Vaishnavi, 17, beat compatriot and eighth seed Vasanti Shinde in quick time, coasting to a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
She will clash with fifth seed Yekaterina Gubanova of Kazakhstan for a place in the final.
Yekatrina fought back from the loss of the opening set to overcome fourth seed Teertha Iska of India 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
In the boys' singles, unseeded Garvit Batra remained the lone Indian hope by entering the semi-finals along with No 1 seed Goran Markovic of Kazakhstan, No 3 Chih-Chun Tang of Chinese Taipei and No 7 Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan.
Results:
Boys' singles (quarter-finals): 1-Goran Markovic (Srb) beat 6-Alexey Nesterov (Kaz) 2-6, 6-4, 7-5; Garvit Batra (Ind) beat Kuatbek Abhiyev (Kaz) 6-1, 6-2; 3-Chih-Chun Tang (Tpe) beat 7-Timur Khabibulin (Kaz) 6-2, 6-1; 7-Dmitry Popko (Kaz) beat Sachin Kumar (Ind) 6-0, 5-7, 6-1.
