Archana Venkatraman shocks Chin Bee

Seasoned Karnataka campaigner Archana Venkatraman upset top seed Khoo Chin Bee of Malaysia to move into the pre-quarter-finals of the $10,000 NECC-ITF women's tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana courts in Pune on Tuesday.

Archana, who was beaten in straight sets by the Malaysian international in their first meeting last April, won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in two hours and 29 minutes. She will meet Mumbai's Sonal Phadke.

The victory also helped Archana, coming into the tournament after suffering from high fever last week, erase memories of the first round loss to Rushmi Chakravarthi in this tournament last year.

Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, the second seed and winner of ITF event in Mumbai last week, and runner-up Isha Lakhani also stormed into the pre-quarter-finals with straight set victories over Liza Pereira of Mumbai and qualifier Sheetal Karnataka respectively.

Archana played a cool and calculated game to upset her erratic opponent, who just could get into her rhythm against the change in pace and tactics adopted by the Bangalore lass, who used her double-fisted backhand return, lobs and passing shots to good effect.

Archana and Chin Bee traded serves in the fifth and sixth games. The Indian, however, broke her opponent's serve in the tenth game to wrap up the first set.

In the second set, the fast attacking Chin Bee came back strongly, breaking Archana's serve in the fifth and seventh games to win the second set and level the set score.

In a long-drawn 55-minute third set, Chin Bee and Archana traded breaks in the fifth and sixth

games. Archana, however, repeated her first game feat by breaking her opponent's serve in the tenth game to wrap up the set and match.

Archana, who had lost to the 337th-ranked Malaysian international in straight set of 6-2, 6-1 last April, attributed her success to the serious practice she had put in for this tournament.

Second seed Akgul Amanmuradvo, who lost to the German qualifier Verena Marie Beller in the quarter-final in this tournament last year, defeated Liza Pereira 6-3, 6-2.

Seventh seed Isha Lakhani of Mumbai took just 42 minutes to end the challenge of Bangalore youngster Sheetal Gautam, winning 6-0, 6-1 while Jayaram Sai Jayalakshmy took seven minutes more to crush another youngster, Poonam Reddy of Andhra Pradesh by a similar margin.

Fourth seed Rushmi Chakravarthi, eight seed Maria Penkova of Bulgaria and Thailand's Tangphong also made it into the pre-quarter-final round without much sweat.

The Tamil Nadu youngster Preeti Rao, who suffered a heavy knee injury in her match against Thassa Vitayaviroj had to be medically retired and conceded the match after she trailed 5-4 in the opening set.

Results:

Archana Venkataraman (Ind) bt Khoo Bee Chin (Mal) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; Maria Penkova (Bul) bt Kartiki Vijay Bhat (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) bt Iciri Rai (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Jayaram Saij Jayalakshmi (Ind) bt Punam Reddy (Ind) 6-1, 6-0; Montinee Tanphong (Thai) bt Krushmi Chheda (Ind) 6-2, 6-0; Isha Lakhani (Ind) bt Sheetal Goutham (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) bt Liza Pereira (Ind) 6-3, 6-2.