Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthy scored contrasting semi-final victories to set up an all-India final in the women's singles of the tennis competition at the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Sania overcame initial hiccups to defeat Czarina Arevalo of The Phillipines 6-4, 6-1 while Rushmi quelled a strong fightback from Indonesia's Sandy Gumulya to win 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 and assure India a gold and silver medal from the event.
The 16-year old Sania, who won the Wimbledon girls' doubles title this year, put up a below par performance in the first set, struggling to hold serve on many occasions, and had difficulty with her forehand shots. But she tightened her game in the second set to notch a straight sets victory.
Sania, who moved into the semis with a 6-1, 6-0 thrashing of Zimbabwe's Fadzai Mawisire, began well, holding her serve in the first game and broke Czarina in the next. But she found herself in trouble at 0-40 in the third as her opponent came up with some good returns to break back.
From then on both players traded breaks till the Filipino held serve in the eighth and Sania in the ninth to go up 5-4. Sania held three set points in the next game and clinched it with her rival hitting her forehand long at 0-40.
The Indian ace showed improvement in the second set and broke Czarina in the second game of the before going up 4-1. She had another break in the very next game before finishing in style with good deep serves in the seventh.
"The first set was pretty tough. But I am happy with the win. It was a good practice match for the final," said Sania after the match.
On the final clash with Rushmi, her doubles partner, the Hyderabad girl said, "We have played a couple of matches against each other, anything may happen."
Rushmi and Gumulya also traded breaks in the first set till the seventh game and the Indian held her serve in the eighth before breaking Gumulya in the next to take the set.
Gumulya, who troubled Sania in the women's team final event by tossing up the ball, stuck to the same game plan against Rushmi in the second set, upsetting her rhythm.
The Indonesian raised her game and broke Rushmi in the third and seventh games to take the second set comfortably, forcing the match to the decider.
However, in the decider she ran out of steam as Rushmi came back strongly and took a 5-0 lead with breaks in the second and fourth games.
"It was a good match. In the second set, the Indonesian kept looping the ball and that slowed down my pace," the 26-year old Rushmi said.
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