Bengaluru: Rutuja Bhosale stormed into the semifinals of the ITF Women’s Open but not before going through some dramatic twists and turns in her ousting of fourth seed Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (5) in a quarterfinal match that lasted two minutes short of three hours.
The 27-year-old Indian, playing on a wildcard ticket, will clash with sixth seed Carole Monnet of France who cruised into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over compatriot and second seed Chloe Paquet.
The top seed of the US $ 40,000 event Darja Semenistaja of Latvia was stretched by fifth seed Polina Kudermetova before she triumphed 6-3, 6-7 (5), 5-1 after the latter retired in the dying moments of the match owing to back ache. In the other semifinals, Darja will meet qualifier Naho Sato of Japan who went past her countrymate Mei Yamaguchi in straight sets 6-4, 7-5.
The China Asian Games Gold medallist Rutuja was clinical in her approach, especially with her forehand as she produced some stunning cross court winners and went 4-0 up with two breaks in the 2nd and 4th game. She was able to sustain the pressure on Moyuka as the Japanese made several unforced errors before resurrecting her game. However it was too late in the set as Rutuja took the first set 6-2.
The second set saw Rutuja slacken a bit and was down a break and trailed 0-2. Egged on by a partisan weekend crowd, she bounced back and went 5-2 up and before her rival could hold her serve. Serving for the match at 5-3 and up by two match points, Rutuja faltered with a couple of unforced errors which changed the momentum in favour of Moyuka who did not waste time in taking advantage of the situation and won the next four games to take the match into the deciding set.
Down 2-5 in the final set, Rutuja made a stunning comeback with renewed force and hitting some excellent down-the-line winners and levelled at 5. She then went on to save three match points at 5-6 after six ‘deuces’ and finally overcame the Japanese 7-5 in the tie-breaker.
