Rushmi will be a player to watch out for tomorrow when the Indian girl, ranked 901st in the WTA list, will take on the third seed Sai Jayalakhshmi (WTA rank 735), whom she had defeated last week in the Ahmedabad finals 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, after some initial hiccups. Sai, today, put paid to the aspirations of eighth seed Shruti Dhawan of DHAITA, winning at 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 serving fault serves, thus losing the point and the game.

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

Sheetal managed to win just two games in the first set the first one on her serve and the sixth by breaking Janaki. In the second, Sheetal's game, however, was an all-together different one to watch. Down 2-5, the resurgent Sheetal thrice stopped Janaki, serving for the match in the 8th, 10th and 12th game, to push the match into tie-breaker.

Janaki was once again 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 the semis. Janaki will now meet the seventh seed Montika Anuchan of Thailand, who was declared winner against her countrymate and No. 4 Orawan Wangkamalsai, after the latter conceded, leading 5-2 in the first set. Orawan, who had defeated Montika in the quarter-final stage of the last leg, had to pull out due to toe injury.

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).
Doubles (Semi-final): 2. Archana Venkatraman-Aarti Venkatraman bt Janaki Krishnamoorthi-Pooja Deshmukh 4-6, 6-3, 6-1; Rushmi Chakravarthi-Sai Jayalakshmi w/o Orawan Wangkalamasai-Montika Anuchan (conceded).
Singles (Pre-Q/F): Janaki Krishnamurthi (Ind) bt 5. Aarti Venkatraman (Ind) 4-6, 6-4, 6-0; 3. Sai Jayalakshmi (Ind) bt Deepa Engade (Ind) 6-, 6-1; 1. Archna Venkatraman (Ind) bt Shalini Thakur (Ind) 6-0, 6-1, 6. Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) bt Nikita Bhardwaj (Ind) 6-4, 6-0; Sheetal (Ind) bt 2. Anna Nefedova (Russia) 6-2, 7-5; 8. Shruti Dhavan (Ind) bt Pooja Deshmuch (Ind) 6-4, 6-0.