Manisha Malhotra loses in semis

Shailesh Soni

Manisha Malhotra crashed out in the semi-finals of the $25,000 Felixstowe Challenger being played in Great Britain.

The unseeded India girl's fantastic run ended against defending champion Roberta Vinci of Italy at 3-6, 4-6. The only positive point in the defeat was that Manisha took more games than other players off the in-form Roberta.

In all, it was a great week for Manisha, who picked up enough points to go to a career-high ranking, inside the top-320.

In the men's circuit, Harsh Mankad, playing with Jonathan Beardsley of the United States, lost in the doubles quarter-finals of the $50,000+H Granby Challenger being played in Canada.

The duo went down 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 to third seeds Brandon Hawk and Robert Kendrick of the United States.

Harsh will be in the main draw of the USA F18 futures in Joplin, Missouri, which starts from July 17.

Other Indians, Manoj Mahadevan, Rishi Sridhar and Vikrant Chadda are in the qualifying rounds, seeded 7th, 9th and 11th respectively in a massive qualifying event with 120 players for eight spots.

Rishi and Manoj have first round byes, but Vikrant will have to win four rounds and then win a main draw round to get one ATP point.

At the USA F17c event in Peoria, Illinois, third seeds Mustafa Ghouse and Adriano Biasella of Italy stormed into the semi-finals, defeating Sadik Kadir of Australia and Marcio Torres of Brazil 6-3, 6-4.

They now face Lazar Magdincev of Macedonia and Mark Nielsen of New Zealand. Magdincev and Nielsen upset top seeds Dominic Marafiotte and Matthew Yeatts 7-5, 7-6(7).

In the women's circuit, at the $10,000 Getxo Satellite tournament in Spain, all the three Indians in the fray bowed out in the first round.

Fifth seed Sai Jayalakshmi was upset by Sonia Delgado of Spain 6-7(5), 6-1, 2-6; seventh seed Rushmi Chakravarti was upset by Carolina Rodriguez of Spain 4-6, 1-6 and unseeded Shruti Dhawan was upset by qualifier Karina Jacobgaard of Denmark 1-6, 2-6.

In the doubles, Rushmi and Sai lost in the semi-finals to fourth seeds Anna Font of Spain and Raissa Gorevich of Russia 3-6, 3-6. Shruti Dhawan and Rochelle Rosenfield of Australia lost to the Sanchez Aleyotte sisters of Spain, 5-7, 1-6 in the first round.

Earlier Report:
Manisha Malhotra in semis