Indian second seed Isha Lakhani was given a scare by Australian rival Renee Binnie before winning their second round clash to enter the quarter-finals of the USD 10,000 ITF Women's Futures Tennis Tournament in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The left-handed Mumbai-based Isha, at 460 points more than 500 rungs above her Australian opponent in the world rankings, huffed and puffed her way to a 3-6 6-2 6-2 victory in 15 minutes under three hours at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana courts.
Isha, the national number 5 among women, got off to a dismal start by losing the first three games which was enough for her rival, ranked 997th, to take the first set in which the Indian player squandered four break points early on.
Isha broke Renee in the fourth game of the second set and held serve for a 4-1 lead and then took control of the set with an aggressive play as her rival started committing errors.
In the decider, Isha broke her rival in the sixth game, for a 4-2 lead, held serve in the next game and broke again in the eighth to seal the match.
She will meet qualifier Moe Kawatoko of Japan who upset seventh seed Kumari-Sweta Solanki, the India number 12, 7-5 6-4.
They were joined by fourth seed Rushmi Chakravarthi who outclassed compatriot and qualifier Prerna Bhambri 6-3 6-3 and set up a clash with eighth seed Chun-Yan He of China who beat unseeded Soon-Mi Seo of Korea 6-2 6-3.
In another second round match, fifth seed Yoon-Young Jeong of Korea endured a late challenge before prevailing over wild card Tanvi Shah of India 6-0 7-5 to make the last eight.
Results: Singles (2nd round): Moe Kawatoko (Jpn) bt Kumari-Sweta Solanki (Ind) 7-5 6-4; Chun-Yan He (Chn) bt Soon-Mi Seo (Kor) 6-2 6-3; Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) bt Prerna Bhambri (Ind) 6-3 6-3; Isha Lakhani (Ind) bt Renee Binnie (Aus) 3-6 6-2 6-2.
1st round: Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Jung-Yoon Shin (Kor) 6-2 6-1; Keren Shlomo (Isr) bt Shivika Burman (Ind) 6-4 6-4; Ishan Lakhani bt Marisa Gianotti (Aus) 6-2 4-6 6-1; Renee Binnie bt Lisa Marshall (SA) 6-3 6-0; Alisa Ogorodova (Uzb) bt Aishwarya Agarwal (Ind) 7-5 6-1.
Doubles (1st round): Adnya Naik/Rishika Sunkara (Ind) bt Tanvi Shah/Rashmi Teltumbde (Ind) 6-2 6-1; Moe Kawatoko (Jpn)/Stephanie Theiler (Sui) bt Prerna Bhambri/Aishwarya Shrivastava (Ind) 5-7 6-2 10-6; Yoon-Young Jeong/Seo-Kyung Kang (Kor) bt Parul Goswami (Ind)/Anastasia Malhotra (Jpn) 3-6 6-2 10-3.
