Asmi squanders match point to bow out of National Under-18 tennis event

Asmi Adkar failed to capitalise on a match point as she went down fighting to second seed Suhitha Maruri in the Under-18 women's singles quarterfinals at the Fenesta Open National hard-court tennis championships in New Delhi on Thursday.

Karnataka's Suhitha was down 4-5 30-40 in the decider on her serve before fighting back to overcome Asmi 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.

Top seed Sonal Patil also bit the dust as she succumbed to Tamil Nadu's Harithashree Venkatesh 2-6, 6-2, 4-6.

Aishwarya Jadhav tamed 13-year-old promising talent Maaya Rajeshwaran 6-2, 6-3 to move into the other semifinal, where she will be up against Harithashree.

In the Under-18 men's singles, Cahir Warik reached the semis after packing off Manish Yadav 6-2, 6-0.

In the open section, men's defending champion Manish Sureshkumar set up a semifinal clash with second seed Karan Singh after both scored fluent wins.

Manish, the fourth seed this year, outplayed Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-2, 6-1 while Karan Singh stopped the sizzling run of former Davis Cupper Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-4.

Ishaque Eqbal and Siddharth Vishwakarma will feature in the other semifinal.

In the women's draw, top seed and defending champion Vaidehee Chaudhari eased past Lakshmi Arunkumar 6-2, 6-3 into the last-four. She will next play Sandeepti Rao, who outlasted Akanksha Nitture 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

In the other semifinal, Asmi's elder sister Vaishnavi will play second seed Rashmika Shrivalli. Vaishnavi knocked out fellow Maharashtrian Sejal Bhutada 6-2, 6-1 while Shrivalli overwhelmed Sai Samhitha 6-0, 6-1.