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Goutham shocks Shalini Thakur

Our Correspondent

On a day of average performances, things went almost according to book in the SoulKurry.com-sponsored third leg of the ITF Women's Satellite Tennis championships, with the only major surprise being the fall of fourth seed Shalini Thakur, who was beaten by seventh seed Sheetal Goutham 5-7, 3-6 in the quarter-finals at the Poona Club courts, on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Goutham was forced to draw on all her experience to get the better of unseeded Sonia Shelar in the pre-quarter-finals. However, today she proved too good for her higher ranked and won in quick time.

In the semis, Sheetal will rub shoulders with second-seed Archana Venkataraman, who rallied to silence her elder sister Arthi, 3-6, 6-1,6-1 in a 91-minute encounter on court one.

Top seed Sonal Phadke dispatched fifth seeded Geeta Manohar in 45 minutes 6-2, 6-1. However, Sonal will have a difficult last four meeting as she is pitted against arch-rival Megha Vakharia, who comfortably got past city lass and eight seed Radhika Mandke 6-4, 6-2.

Megha had last week beaten Sonal to win the second leg of the tournament, thus making the semis an interesting affair.

In the doubles, second seeded duo of Shalini and Karishma Patel had to bite the dust, going down to unseeded Isha Lakhani and Megha 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Results (quarter-finals):

SINGLES (quarter-finals): 1-Sonal Phadke bt 5-Geeta Manohar 6-2, 6-1; 3-Megha Vakharia bt 8-Radhika Mandke 6-4, 6-2; 7-Sheetal Goutham bt 4-Shalini Thakur 7-5, 6-3; 2-Archana Venkataraman 6-Arthi Venkataraman 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

DOUBLES (semi-finals): 4-Sheetal Goutham/Lisa Pereira bt Radhika Mandke/Sonia Shelar 7-5, 6-4; Isha Lakhani/Megha Vakharia bt 2-Shalini Thakur/Karishma Patel 2-6, 6-1, 6-3; 3-Sonal Phadke/Nona Wagh bt Geeta Manohar/Thukkaindi Yamini 3-6,6-3, 6-3; 1-Archana Venkataraman/Arthi Venkataraman bt Rati Kumar/T. Sricharanya 6-2, 6-3.

The following players have been selected to play the singles and doubles Masters, to be held at DLTA courts in Delhi from May 29 to June 1.

SINGLES: Sonal Phadke, Archana Venkataraman, Megha Vakharia, Sheetal Goutham, Shalini Thakur, Geeta Manohar, Arthi Venkataraman, Radhika Mandke, Lisa Pereira, Nona Wagh, Karishma Patel, T. Sricharanya, Marutha Devi, Deepa Chakrabarthy, T.Yamini, Isha Lakhani.

DOUBLES: Archana Venkataraman, Arthi Venkataraman, Shalini Thakur, Sonal Phadke, Nona Wagh, Lisa Pereira, Sheetal Goutham, Geeta Manohar, T.Yamini, Isha Lakhani, Megha Vakharia, Radhika Mandke, Marutha Devi.

The cut-off of the above listed players is seven circuit points.