Isha Lakhani out of Bangalore Open

Bangalore: The Indian challenge ended in the singles event of the USD 175,000 Bangalore Open with wild-card Isha Lakhani losing to Ukraine's Yuliana Fedak 3-6 3-6 in the second round. Fedak, world number 117, played a consistent game at the centre court of the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association courts and outplayed the world number 480 to advance to the quarter-finals of the WTA Tier-III event. Lakhani came back strongly after being down 0-2 in the opener and then levelled it 3-3 before running out of steam. She played well in patches but her opponent was more aggressive and played a more powerful game forcing the Indian on the backfoot. "It's nice playing here," Fedak said. "It was a tough match than the scoreline suggests." Fedak now takes on third seed and world number 59 Mara Santengelo of Italy for a place in the semi-final. Santengelo came from behind to sideline Tzipora Obziler of Israel 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 today. "It was tougher than I expected," admitted Santengelo, who was beaten by Obziler at the Tashkent Open last year. "I tried to be more aggressive and hit the ball harder without losing concentration.I know her game." India's Sania Mirza, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Ankita Bhambri have already lost. In other quarter-finals, Camille Pin (France) will take on Vania King (USA), Melinda Czink (Hungary) will meet Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) and Jelena Kostanic (Croatia) will clash with Maria Elena Camerin (Italy). (PTI)

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