By IANS,
New Delhi : Eighth-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi knocked out top seed Poojashree Venkatesha 6-4, 6-2 Friday while Sanaa Bhambri overcame Chinese qualifier Sirui He 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) to set up an all-Indian final clash in the $10,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament at the DLTA stadium here.
The 30-year-old Rushmi, who has not dropped a set in the tournament so far, last met Sanaa in 2006 Ahmedabad ITF, where she lost in a three-setter.
But Rushmi has been stroking very well in the tournament and she comfortably dispatched an error-prone Poojashree, the winner of the ITF Bangalore last week.
Sanaa, on the other hand, had to toil hard, squandering as many as five match points before closing out the match in the sixth.
The Indian walked away with first set but struggled with her first serve in the second set. She dropped her serve in the second game, where she committed three double faults, but broke back immediately. The two traded breaks again in the sixth and the seventh game and when Sanaa dropped her serve in the eighth, He was in command.
The Chinese served out the set in the next game though not before saving three break points.
The decider saw both the players dropping their serves in the first two games before Sanaa broke He in the eighth game to lead 5-3. The Delhi girl, serving for the match, had two match points but was instead broken by the Chinese.
Sanaa then had three match points in the next game but failed to covert and the set entered the tie-breaker.
The seventh-seeded Indian was 2-4 in the tie-break but errors from He saw her rally back to win the match after nearly two and a half hour.