Rushmi Chakravorthi ousted in semis

The Indian challenge in the Syndicate Bank $10,000 ITF Women's tennis tournament came to an end on Friday after national champion Rushmi Chavorthi was ousted by Urska Vesenjak of Slovenia 4-2, 5-3, 5-4 (7/3) in the semi-finals.

In the second semifinal, Urska's twin sister Masa ensured that the title will bear the family name Vesenjak, as she crus- hed giant-killer Maja Mlakar 4-0, 4-1, 4-1 in just 40 minutes.

Urska Vesenjak took control of the match, breaking Rushmi early in the first set and raced to a 3-0 lead. The Indian champion broke back to reduce the margin but that was all that came from her for the rest of the set.

In the second set, Rushmi collected herself and was tied neck-and-neck 3-3 till Urska, displaying her allround superior game, broke to effectively seal the set.

It looked like a lost battle for the Indian as she was broken in the first game of the third set. But Rushmi, who has had a fine run lately, came back strongly to break the Slovenian in the next game. But any hopes of a turnaround were dashed when Rushmi squandered two break points when leading 4-3. Urska took advantage of the situation and forced the tie-breaker.

Again Rushmi raced to a 3-1 lead only to let go the advantage and lost the next six points without putting up any resistance.

Masa Vesenjak meanwhile gave Maja Mlakar a taste of her own medicine and followed her sister into Saturday's final.

Masa was accurate with her cross-court forehands, touching the sideline most of the times, that gave no chance to Mlakar to reach the ball.

Mlakar was made to move around the court by her opponent as she failed to break her game plan. Masa raced off to a two-set lead under the half hour mark, dropping only one game in the process.

The third set was no different from the first two as Masa stamped her superiority in a match that hardly fitted a semi-final billing.

Umpiring came under heavy criticism from the players and spectators as some bad calls were made by the chair umpire over-ruling the linesmen and Vesenjak sisters were at the receiving end of them most of the time. But that did not deter the twins from setting up a final date.