ITF Women’s Open 2024: Ankita storms into semifinals with a comeback victory

Ankita Raina showed signs of returning to her wonted form when she registered a superb comeback victory against Jacqueline Cabaj Awad of Sweden to advance to the singles semifinals of the Federal Bank ITF Women’s Open Gurugam W35.

The 31-year-old Indian ace won a hard-fought 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over the visitor.

The other Indian in the fray Sahaja Yamalapalli pulled one back before losing steam and the match to top seed Dalila Jakkupovic of Slovenia 5-7, 6-3, 0-6.

In the first semifinal, the second-seeded Ankita will meet third-seeded Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania who stopped the journey of qualifier Ekaterina Kazionova in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 while Dalila will take on unseeded Korean Yeonwoo Ku who brushed past Zhibek Kulambayeva of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-3.

Ankita also entered the finals of the doubles along with her partner Zhibek Kulambayeva beating the Indo-Japanese pair of Riya Bhatia and Michika Ozeki 7-5, 6-2.

The top-seeded duo will meet the pair of Jacqueline Cabaj Awad and Justina Mikulskyte Lithuania who downed the Korean-Latvian combination of Yeonwoo Ku and Diana Marcinkevica 7-6 (7), 7-5 in the other semifinals.

Both Ankita and Cabaj held their respective serves until the fourth game when the Indian lost her concentration, and with it, her serve in the fifth game.

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The lanky Swede upped her game to take a 5-2 lead before Ankita showed signs of a comeback breaking her opponent’s serve in the 8th game and holding her serve in the 9th before her opponent served out for the set.

Ankita clawed back into the match in the second set where she went 3-0 up with a break in the second game and broke the visitor’s serve in the sixth game as well before wrapping up the set 6-2. Some crafty cross-court winners were the highlight of Ankita’s game.

However, a couple of unforced errors cost her serve in the first game of the decider. Armed with a break, the 28-year-old went 4-2 up before Ankita upped her game and pushed her opponent to commit mistakes. Some of Ankita’s net-grazing shots were a treat to watch. She achieved a crucial break in the eighth game to level the score.

Keeping the momentum, Ankita who is recovering from an injury, took advantage of her tiring opponent and broke Cabaj’s serve in the eight at love to stop her opponent’s bid for the 10th ITF title.