Prerna storms into quarterfinals

Fourth-seeded Prerna Bhambri breezed past talented Natasha Palha 6-3, 6-3 to enter the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women's tournament at the DLTA complex here on Wednesday.

Delhi girl Prerna now plays eighth-seeded and last-time champion Ankita Raina, who won 6-1, 6-4. Ankita showed the door to qualifier Kanika Vaidya, who shocked former national champion Ratnika Batra on Tuesday.

In the other second round matches, national champion Rutuja Bhosale swept aside Aishwarya Agrawal 6-1, 6-1 to set a quarterfinal clash with Hong Kong’s Katherine IP. Katherine broke little sweat in getting past Anushka Bhargava 6-2, 6-1.

Second-seeded Zhaoxuan Yang of China, too, had little difficulty in overcoming  Prarthana Thombare 6-3, 6-1. Zhaoxuan now plays Shweta Rana who decimated Anna-Christin Nilsson of Germany 6-0, 6-0.

Results (singles): Katherine IP (Hkg) bt Anushka Bhargava 6-2, 6-1; Rutuja Bhosale bt Aishwarya Agrawal 6-1, 6-1; Prerna Bhambri bt Natasha Palha 6-3, 6-2; Ankita Raina bt Kanika Vaidya 6-1, 6-4; Vanita Dangwal bt Simran Kaur Sethi  6-3, 6-2; Miyabi Inoue (Jpn) bt Tarrannum Handa 6-2, 6-0; Shweta Rana bt Anna-Christin Nilsson (Ger) 6-0, 6-0; Zhaoxuan Yang (Chi) bt Prarthana Thombare 6-3, 6-1.