Bangalore: Kyra Shroff, the 19-year-old Indian wild card, scalped higher ranked Nungnadda Wannasuk from Thailand 6-3, 6-4, en route to the semi-finals of the QNet ITF Open women's tennis tournament here Thursday.
Kyra maintained her great form in the tournament while outplaying the Thai girl and will clash with Croatian teenager and ninth seed Donna Vekic, who defeated top seed Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, in a 150-minute encounter.
In the other two quarter-finals, Japan's second seed Akiko Omae beat Melis Sezer from Turkey 6-4, 6-1, and Chilean Andrea Koch-Benvenuto, the fourth seed, got past Melanie Klaffner of Austria, who retired after losing the first set 2-6.
The first set, clearly belonged to Kyra who caught her opponent off guard with her forehand winners. She took the set with two breaks (4th and 6th games) while dropping her serve in the fifth.
In the second set, Kyra's serve was under pressure as she was broken in the sixth and eighth games, but broke back in the third, seventh and ninth games to wrap up the match.
Donna, the 15-year-old Croatian, and Tamaryn played some scintillating power tennis with a relentless barrage of groundstroke and scorching returns.
Donna had a very clear edge, as she broke Hendler in the second and eighth games but dropping serve in the fifth to take the set at 6-3.
In the second, Donna jumped to a 4-0 lead with Hendler committing far too many errors. However, the Thai girl struck a purple match to level at 5-all to put Donna under pressure before taking the second on tie-break.
Donna, however, regained her composure in the decider and came up with a crucial break of serve in the sixth before clinching the tie.
"I am glad it is over. I was missing a few in the second set after taking a 4-0 lead, but I think I did pretty well to come back in the decider and win the match," said Donna, who had earlier lost to Hendler in a $25,000 event in Nigeria last year.
The results (doubles, semi-finals): Tadeja Majeric / Anja Prislan (SLO) bt Deniz Khazaniuk (ISR) / Ya Zhou (CHN) 6-3, 6-1.
