Bengaluru, February 19 India's Vaishnavi Adkar defeated eighth seed Mai Hontama in a thrilling three-set match to advance to the quarterfinals of the ITF Women's Open W100 here on Thursday.
Adkar defeated her Japanese opponent 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8).
The 21-year-old Indian had to dig deep after a slow start, as Hontama came out strong, dominating the baseline and capitalizing on Adkar's early errors to break in the second game.
Dictating the rallies with consistency and depth, the Japanese player maintained that momentum to win the first set 6-2.
However, Adkar turned the match around in the second set.
Raising her intensity and moving closer to the baseline, she began putting pressure on Hontama.
An early break in the second game gave her an advantage, and she quickly went up 3-0.
Although Hontama broke back to reduce the gap to 3-2, Adkar continued to hit strong returns and extend the rallies, forcing Hontama to make errors.
Even after failing to close out the set at the first opportunity, she responded with renewed aggression to break Hontama's serve again and win the second set 6-4.
In the deciding set, Hontama broke Adkar in the third game, but Adkar immediately retaliated.
The pair exchanged breaks again in the seventh and eighth games.
Adkar was just one point away from victory in the 10th game, but Hontama saved match point and forced a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Hontama went up 5-2 after Adkar missed a drop shot.
However, Adkar refused to give up as two powerful forehand winners brought her back into contention and gave her the lead.
Despite missing three more match points, she remained composed and, at 9-8, Hontama sent a backhand into the net, handing Adkar a memorable victory.
Adkar will face fourth seed Taylah Preston of Australia in the quarterfinals on Friday.
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Earlier, Sahaja Yamalapalli lost 0-6, 0-6 to top seed Talia Gibson of Australia.
The match was interrupted when bees swarmed the KSLTA complex, forcing the players to retreat to the locker room. None of the players, officials, or spectators were bitten during the 20-minute delay.
Once the match resumed, Gibson found her range, mixing deep forehands with delicate drop shots to dominate the proceedings.
She maintained that advantage on serve in the second set, repeatedly punishing Sahaja with powerful returns to efficiently win the match.
