Curovic thrown out for racquet abuse

Unseeded Tamara Curovic was dumped out of the USD 10,000 ITF women’s tennis circuit for racquet abuse that injured a match official in the quarterfinals of the singles event at the Cricket Club of India courts on Thursday.

Curovic was serving for the first set at 5-3 against seventh-seeded Serbian compatriot Javana Joksic and squandered three set-points, which resulted in her flinging her racquet in the direction of line judge Raju Jadhav who was injured on the shin.

Chair umpire Shreeram Gokhale immediately summoned ITF Supervisor Sheetal Iyer and apprised her of the incident. Iyer, after understanding the situation, awarded the match in favour of Jaksic.

Wannasuk shines

In another encounter, unseeded Nungnadda Wannasuk of Thailand continued her giant-killing run by taming eighth seed Nicole Clerico of Italy 6-1 6-1 to progress into the last four.

The Thai girl, who had accounted for third seed Agnese Zucchini, also of Italy, in the second round, enjoyed another comfortable outing against Clerico, winning the quarterfinal contest with a degree of comfort.

Another Thai girl, qualifer Varunya Wongteanchai, defeated Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic of Germany 7-6(4) 6-4 to join compatriot Wannasuk in the semis.

India’s Kyra Shroff and her Slovenian partner Anja Pristan entered the doubles final after they shocked top seeded Italian pair of Martina Caciottri and Nicole Clerico 6-4 6-3 in the semifinal.

The Indo-Slovenian duo will clash with Thailand’s second seeded pair Peangtarn Plipuech and Varunya Wongteanchai in the final.

The Thai duo eliminated India’s Rushmi Chakravarthi and her Israeli partner Keren Shlomo 6-4 6-0 in the other semifinal.

Results: Singles (quarters): 1-Keren Shlomo (Isr) bt 5-Peangtarn Plipuech (Tha) 6-2, 6-4; Varunya Wongteanchai (Tha) bt Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic (Ger) 7-6(4), 6-4; Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) bt 8-Nicole Clerico (Ita) 6-1, 6-1; 7-Jovana Jaksic (Srb) bt Tamara Curovic (Srb) 3-5 (default).