Manisha Malhotra goes down fighting
Dhiraj Shetty
India's top player and second seeded Manisha Malhotra was on Thursday ousted from the ITF Futures tournament by fifth seed Camilla Kremer after a hard-fought quarter-final match at the MLSTA courts in Mumbai.
With Malhotra's exit, the two top seeds are out of the reckoning. On Wednesday, top seed Shelly Stephans had lost to little-known Hsian Han Chao.
The United States-based Sunitha Rao is now the only Indian left in the fray.
Malhotra played much better tennis than she had in her match on Wednesday and took the first set before Kremer fought back to win the second.
However, she committed some unforced errors after losing concentration on account of some close line calls and let the unfazed Kremer wrap up the match 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
A furious Manisha left the court and headed straight for home, without even waiting for her parents, who had come to watch her play.
It must be said that both players were the victims of some bad umpiring decisions. In fact, the standard of umpiring during the entire tournament has been rather dismal. For example, in the Malhotra-Kremer match, at one point, the linesman called a fault even before the ball had touched the court. While Kremer maintained her composure, Malhotra frequently argued with the umpire.
Kremer will clash with the seventh seed Sunitha Rao in the semi-finals.
Earlier, Sunitha Rao made it past Dominica Luzarova 6-2 7-6. If her previous matches are anything to go by, it looks like the Indian presence will continue till the final on Friday.
