Riya Bhatia loses in singles, but keeps India's doubles hopes alive

New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI) India's Riya Bhatia fought hard before losing her singles pre-quarterfinal to fourth seed Yuriko Lily Miyazaki in a three-setter but she later reached the doubles semifinals with her partner at the ITF W50 tennis tournament here on Thursday.

Ankita Raina also made the doubles last-four stage with her partner.

Former national champion Riya lost 4-6 6-4 1-6 to her British opponent. With her defeat, India's campaign ended in the singles.

However, Riya later combined with compatriot Vaidehi Chaudhary to beat M J Portillo Ramirez and Ekaterina Yoshina in the quarterfinals.

The Indian pair came from behind to eke out a 4-6 6-3 10-5 win in one hour and 25 minutes to progress to the semifinals.

They will now face the pair of Ankita and American Naiktah Bains, who knocked out second seeds Dalila Jakupovic and Laura Pigossi 6-2 3-6 10-3 in the other quarterfinal match.

At least one Indian will thus be in contention for the doubles title.

Meanwhile, Prarthana Thombare and her British partner Alicia Barnett gave a tough fight to the top-seeded pair of Mariya Kozyreva and Anastasia Tikhonova before losing their quarterfinal match 5-7 3-6. Tikhonova also made the singles quarterfinals with 7-6(6) 3-6 6-2 win over Japan's Naho Sato.

Top seed Darja Semenistja also booked her singles spot in the last eight with an easy 6-2 6-0 win over qualifier Ekaterina Maklakova. PTI PDS PDS SSC SSC