Ushna Sohail in singles semis, doubles final in Bahrain

LAHORE: Pakistan’s Ushna Suhail entered the singles semi-final and women’s doubles final of the Bahrain IFT tournament on Friday.

Ushna and her Indian partner Spurti Shivalingiah swept aside their Turkish opponents Naz Karagoz and Bushra Kayrun in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.

In the women’s doubles semi-final, Ushna and Spurti were 1-3 down but used some aggressive baseline tactics to tie the score at 3-3. From there on, the Indo-Pak pair kept up their pace and bagged the set.

In the second set, Ushna and Spurti were cruising towards victory at 5-2 but suddenly lost concentration. Their erratic play allowed the Turkish pair to cut down the lead to 4-5. The South Asian pair then bounced back to seal the set and match at 6-3, 6-4.

Meanwhile, in the women’s singles quarterfinal, Ushna scored a 6-4, 6-4 win over Nikita Dowda of Kenya.

Seeded second in the tournament, Ushna came back from 0-3 down to get level at 3-3 and went on to win the set at 6-3.

After taking a 3-1 lead in second set, Ushna let her Kenyan opponent get back at 3-3. Ushna, however, held her serve and broke her opponents to make it 5-3. She then sealed the match on serve to enter the semi-finals. —AP