Korean Dayeon Back beat fifth seed Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-4, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the MSLTA Academy on Friday.
In the semifinals, Back will play second seed Dalila Jakupovic who overcame a tough start to beat Miriana Tona of Italy in three sets.
The fine run of another Korean, Yeonwoo Ku continued as the wiry 20-year-old outplayed Ekaterina Yashina for the loss of one game. She will face Daria Kudashova in the semifinals.
Ku in partnership with Justina Mikulskyte beat Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-1, 2-6, [10-8] in the doubles semifinals. The Indian pair fought hard from being down 3-8 in the super tie-break till 8-9 before the scratch combination of singles champion and runner-up of the last tournament in Gurugram closed it out.
The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Yeonwoo Ku (Kor) bt Ekaterina Yashina 6-1, 6-0; Daria Kudashova bt Rinon Okuwaki (Jpn) 6-4, 6-3; Dayeon Back (Kor) bt Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-4, 6-1; Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) bt Miriana Tona (Ita) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.
Doubles (semifinals): Irina Maria Bara (Rou) & Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) bt Yasmine Mansouri (Fra) & Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) 7-5, 6-4; Yeonwoo Ku (Kor) & Justina Mikulskyte (Ltu) bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty & Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-1, 2-6, [10-8].
