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.

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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.

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.