Poojashree, Sharmada advance

On a rain-hit day at the PET Tennis stadium, seventh-seeded Poojashree was too strong for Prerna Bhambri, hardly breaking sweat on her way to a 6-2, 6-0 victory, while the unseeded Sharmada was stretched only in comparison by Nidhi Chilumula, coming through 6-3, 6-2.

Unlike on the opening two days when there were upsets galore, the form book held true on Wednesday, with all the seeds in action securing their berths in the last-eight stage. Top-seeded Anastasiya Vasylyeva of Ukraine, the world number 400, cruised past Russian Julia Parasyuk 6-1, 6-2, while British third seed Emily Webley-Smith packed off Indian Sheethal Goutham in straight sets 6-0, 6-4. In the closest second-round contest, Ukrainian Anna Skhudun played the bigger points better to oust Thai Varatchaya Wongteanchai 6-4, 7-5.

India’s Kyra Shroff was trailing 4-6, 1-1 against Russian Anna Rapoport in the only second-round match yet to be completed when rain halted proceedings. The match will be resumed on Thursday morning. In the only doubles match that could be completed, the Japanese pair of Kei Sekine and Sakiko Shimizu came a cropper, going down 3-6, 4-6 to the top-seeded Ukrainian-British duo of Vasylyeva and Webley-Smith.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding): Singles, second round: Anna Shkudun (Ukr) bt Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) 6-4, 7-5; 8-Luksika Kumkhum (Tha) bt Ankita Raina (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; 5-Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) bt Trang Huynh Phuong Dai (Vie) 7-5, 6-1; 1-Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) bt Julia Parasyuk (Rus) 6-1, 6-2; 3-Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Sheethal Goutham (Ind) 6-0, 6-4; 7-Poojashree Venkatesha (Ind) bt Prerna Bhambri (Ind) 6-2, 6-0; Sharmada Balu (Ind) bt Nidhi Chilumula (Ind) 6-3, 6-2. Doubles, quarterfinals: 1-Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr)/Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Kei Sekine/Sakiko Shimizu (Jpn) 6-3, 6-4.