Akanksha Nitture stunned second seed Vaishnavi Adkar to set up an all-Indian final against Tanisha Kashyap in the $15,000 ITF women's tennis event in Bengaluru on Saturday.
In a match of see-sawing fortunes, Mumbai girl Akanksha overcame ebb and flow in her own form as well as a three-hour rain interruption to beat Pune's Vaishnavi 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the semifinals of the hard court event.
Tanisha pulled off an upset of her own in the other semifinal at the KSLTA stadium , beating fourth seed Carolann Delaunay of New Caledonia 6-1, 7-5.
Akanksha, who reached the quarterfinals last week in Mysuru, remained in contention in doubles as well.
The 21-year-old and local girl Soha Sadiq, the reigning National champions, were leading 5-4 against Russia's Arina Arifullina and Jo-Leen Saw of Malaysia when rain returned to suspend play for the day.
The winners will face top seeds Humera Baharmus and Pooja Ingale, who powered into the final with a 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over Sai Samhitha and Diva Bhatia.
Akanksha came out with her guns blazing from the get-go, troubling her rival, who is yet to fully recover from chikungunya, with her big serves, deep returns and clever drop shots, which Vaishnavi, also suffering from an abdominal strain, made any effort to get to.
Despite the limitations and icing her swollen knee during the changeovers, she troubled Akanksha with her power-packed ground strokes, coming up with winners off both flanks.
Vaishnavi broke back in the eighth and 10th games to level at 5-5. But before much damage could be done, Akanksha stepped up her game a notch to close out the set in the 12th game.
She broke Vaishnavi's serve in the first game of the second set before the heavens opened up.
The three-hour delay seemed to break Akanksha's momentum. The second seed didn't let that affect her as she began to dictate terms and took the issue to the decider.
She wasn't the same player in the final set, as she was broken in the fourth game, serving a double fault at breakpoint.
Akanksha, whose previous best was a semifinal appearance in Ahmedabad two years ago, didn't prolong her rival's agony, closing out the match by breaking Vaishnavi's serve again in the eighth game.
In a match of see-sawing fortunes, Mumbai girl Akanksha overcame ebb and flow in her own form as well as a three-hour rain interruption to beat Pune's Vaishnavi 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the semifinals of the hard court event.
Tanisha pulled off an upset of her own in the other semifinal at the KSLTA stadium , beating fourth seed Carolann Delaunay of New Caledonia 6-1, 7-5.
Akanksha, who reached the quarterfinals last week in Mysuru, remained in contention in doubles as well.
The 21-year-old and local girl Soha Sadiq, the reigning National champions, were leading 5-4 against Russia's Arina Arifullina and Jo-Leen Saw of Malaysia when rain returned to suspend play for the day.
The winners will face top seeds Humera Baharmus and Pooja Ingale, who powered into the final with a 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over Sai Samhitha and Diva Bhatia.
Akanksha came out with her guns blazing from the get-go, troubling her rival, who is yet to fully recover from chikungunya, with her big serves, deep returns and clever drop shots, which Vaishnavi, also suffering from an abdominal strain, made any effort to get to.
Despite the limitations and icing her swollen knee during the changeovers, she troubled Akanksha with her power-packed ground strokes, coming up with winners off both flanks.
Vaishnavi broke back in the eighth and 10th games to level at 5-5. But before much damage could be done, Akanksha stepped up her game a notch to close out the set in the 12th game.
She broke Vaishnavi's serve in the first game of the second set before the heavens opened up.
The three-hour delay seemed to break Akanksha's momentum. The second seed didn't let that affect her as she began to dictate terms and took the issue to the decider.
She wasn't the same player in the final set, as she was broken in the fourth game, serving a double fault at breakpoint.
Akanksha, whose previous best was a semifinal appearance in Ahmedabad two years ago, didn't prolong her rival's agony, closing out the match by breaking Vaishnavi's serve again in the eighth game.
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