Rushmi, ranked 901 in the WTA list, will take on the third seed Sai Jayalakhshmy (735) tomorrow, whom she had defeated last week in the Ahmedabad finals after some hiccups. Sai, today, put paid to the aspirations of eighth seed Shruti Dhawan of DHAITA 6-3, 6-1.

Except for a little resistance from Archana in the fourth game, Rushmi had no problem winning the first set 6-0. Leading 3-0 with a break in the second, and 0-30 in the fourth, Rushmi found it difficult to handle Archana's forehand cross-court returns. She lost three points there.

However, in the deuce, luck was with Rushmi, as Archana went erratic, twice servingfault serves, thus losing the point and the game.

In the second set, at 4-3 with serve in Rushmi's favour, the top seed totally lost her line of play. The game (eighth) saw Archana start her serve with a double fault and then a series of mistakes. Gaining this decisive break, Rushmi merely had to complete a job already well done. She wrapped up the match without dropping a point in the next two games to win 6-3.

JANAKI SURVIVES: Unseeded Janaki Krishnamoorthy survived a close call from her unseeded Bangalore opponent -- Sheetal Gautam -- to win 6-2, 7-6 (8-6). The 17-year-old, high on morale after her career-best win against the second seed Russian Anna Nefedova yesterday, though she had lost the first set meagerly, played to perfection in the second set.

Janaki was up 3-2 in the tie-breaker, but Sheetal made up the deficit and was soon up 5-4. Janaki, unmoved by Sheetal's comeback, stuck to her original game. Thus saving two match points in the tie-breaker to finally book her berth in thesemis.

SEMI-FINAL LINE UP: SINGLES: Rushmi Chakravarthy (Ind) vs Sai Jayalakshmi (Ind). Montika Anuchan (Thai) vs Janaki Krishnamoorthy (Ind).

RESULTS (Prefix denotes seedings)

SINGLE (Q/F): 5. Rushmi Chakravarthy (Ind) bt 1. Archana Venkatraman (Ind) 6-0, 6-3; Janaki Krishnamoorthy (Ind) bt Sheetal Gautam (Ind) 6-2, 7-6 (8-6); 3. Sai Jayalakshmi (Ind) bt 8. Shruti Dhawan (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; 7. Montika Anuchan (Thai) bt 4. Orawan Wangkamalsai (Thai) 5-2 (conceded).

(Pre-Q/F): Janaki Krishnamoorthi (Ind) bt 5. Aarti Venkatraman (Ind) 4-6, 6-4, 6-0; 3. Sai Jayalakshmi (Ind) bt Deepa Engade (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; 1. Archana Venkatraman (Ind) bt Shalini Thakur (Ind) 6-0, 6-1, 6. Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) bt Nikita Bhardwaj (Ind) 6-4, 6-0; G Sheetal (Ind) bt 2. Anna Nefedova (Russia) 6-2, 7-5; 8. Shruti Dhawan (Ind) bt Poja Deshmukh (Ind) 6-4, 6-0; 4-Orawan Wongkamalsai (Thai) bt Nandini Parumal (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; 7-Monika Anuchan (Thai) bt Kameshwari Vadali (Ind) 6-1, 6-2