Vaishnavi Adkar will become only the second Indian to win a medal in the World University Games, after Nandal Bal clinched a silver in men's singles in the 1979 edition in Mexico City.
India is assured of a rare medal in tennis as Vaishnavi Adkar made it to the women's singles semifinals while most of her compatriots across disciplines failed to make a mark in the World University Games in Berlin on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old Vaishnavi beat home favourite Sina Herrmann 6-1, 6-4 in a dominant display in the women's singles quarterfinals. She will face Eszter Meri of Slovakia in the semifinals on Thursday.
She will become only the second Indian to win a medal in the World University Games, after Nandal Bal clinched a silver in men's singles in the 1979 edition in Mexico City.
Under the rules, two bronze medals are awarded in tennis competition in the WUG.
Vaishnavi's feat was the lone bright spot for Indians who endured another medal-less day. India has won just one medal so far through the badminton mixed team event as the WUG crossed the half-way mark.
In the swimming pool, Srihari Nataraj missed out on a semifinal spot in the men's 50m freestyle despite winning his heat with a time of 23.06 seconds. He finished 28th overall with the last semifinal qualifier clocking 22.72 seconds.
Nithik Nathella (men's 200m backstroke), Nina Venkatesh and Latiesha Mandanna (women's 50m freestyle), Divyanka Pradhan and Naga Vasupalli (women's 100m breaststroke) also failed to make the semifinals.
The men's 4×200 freestyle relay team comprising Srihari, Aneesh, Shivank and Shoan failed to reach the final round after finishing seventh in the heat.
In archery, Asian Games team gold medallist Parneet Kaur spearheaded India's challenge, topping the women's compound ranking round by edging South Korea's Yerin Park by a solitary point with a score of 701.
Madhura Dhamangaonkar (sixth, 687) and Avneet Kaur (22nd, 673) were the next best Indians, helping the women's compound team secure the second seeding behind South Korea.
The team got a bye to the quarterfinals, where they will face the winners of Italy vs Ukraine on Thursday.
In contrast, the men's recurve archers struggled.
Aryan Rana was the best-placed Indian at 29th with 640 points, followed by Vishnu Chaudhary (42nd, 627) and Mrinal Chauhan (47th, 622).
As expected, South Korea dominated the event, clinching the top two spots.
The Indian men's recurve team finished 12th overall and will open their knockout campaign against fifth-seeded USA in the pre-quarterfinals.
Track and field athletes have been disappointing so far.
Arjun Waskale clocked 3:47.36s to finish seventh in the men's 1500m Round 1 and failed to advance to the final.
Ruchit Mori missed out on the 400m hurdles final after finishing seventh in his semifinal heat with a time of 51.04 seconds. Sreevarthani Kavitha and Deekshita Ramakrishna also failed to reach the women's 400m hurdles semifinals.
Manikanta Hoblidhar and Gurindervir Singh failed to reach the 100m semifinals after finishing 26th and 40th respectively after clocking below-par 10.74 seconds and 11.00 seconds.
In table tennis, Indian campaign ended in women singles after Suhana Saini lost to Chien Tung-Chuan of Chinese Taipei 1-4 (11-8, 3-11, 1-11, 3-11, 7-11) in a round of 32 match.
Out of four Indian women singles entry, only Suhana made it to the round of 32.
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