Rushmi knocks Katie off her perch
India's Rushmi Chakravarthi ousted third-seeded Katie O'Brien to book a Commonwealth Games women's quarterfinals place alongside compatriot Sania Mirza. Tomojit Basu reports
Finally, a worthy display graced the R.K. Khanna Stadium on Wednesday with some memorable exchanges for the Indian side. While No. 1 seed Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza came out on top of their singles ties against Sri Lanka's Amresh Jayawickreme (6-0, 6-1) and Brittany Teei of the Cook Islands (6-0, 6-2) respectively, unseeded Rushmi Chakravarthi pulled off the first major upset of the Games by knocking out third seed Katie O'Brien of England to progress to the women's singles quarterfinals.
Katie had won the first set convincingly at 6-1 as Rushmi struggled to gain a footing against her more experienced opponent. Rushmi's service had let her down but she changed track in the second set and won 81% of the points from her first serve while O'Brien managed a mere 58%. The set headed into a tie-breaker which Rushmi won 7-2.
Rushmi kept the momentum going in the third set and fortunes swung drastically before Rushmi eventually won the set and the match in exactly two hours at 7-5, setting up a meeting with sixth-seed Olivia Rogowska.
Rohan Bopanna and Poojashree Venkatesh suffered heartbreaks despite spirited performances. Poojashree made her exit in singles after a 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 loss at the hands of fifth-seed Heather Watson of Guernsey in a match that lasted an hour and 46 minutes.
Bopanna, ranked 587, bowed out of singles with a defeat to second seed Australian Peter Luczak. After losing the first set 2-6, Bopanna rallied well and a tie-break looked imminent with the two at 6-6. Luczak stepped up his game and overturned Bopanna's 3-0 lead to finish off the set and match.
The fourth-seeded women's pair of Sania and Rushmi beat the Scottish duo of Mhairi Brown and Jocelyn Rae 6-1, 7-6 (7-2). The second-seeded duo of Somdev and Bopanna also cruised to a victory over the Scottish pair of Colin Fleming and Jamie Murray, 6-3, 6-1.