ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour 2025: Akanksha enter W15 Gurugram semis; doubles final becomes all-Indian contest

Akanksha Nitture relied on patience and perseverance to back her purposeful stroke-play as she accelerated to a 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-0 victory over the supremely fit Maria Mikhailova in the quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Tennis Project, Baliawas, on Friday.

Having prepared at the venue for a fortnight prior to the tournament, the 22-year-old Akanksha struck rhythm quickly and stayed in focus right through the contest that lasted three hours and 22 minutes. 

In fact, when Akanksha lost the first set in the tie-break, the rest of the three quarterfinals had ended, with Zeel Desai, Shruti Ahlawat and Shihomi Leong making the semifinals.

Unperturbed by the quality of the opponent or the intensity of rallies, Akanksha turned the match around in a memorable fashion to set up a semifinal against Zeel.

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After negotiating two three-setters in the first two matches, Zeel was at her fluent best in racing past Eva Desvignes of Singapore for the loss of three games.

Shruti Ahlawat continued to impress as she beat the former world No.16 junior Vlada Mincheva with a professional execution, dropping seven games in two sets, mostly on her own serve.

The 19-year-old Shruti, herself a former top-50 junior, will play Shihomi Leong of Malaysia, who ousted fifth seed Paola Lopez for the loss of three games.

In doubles, it became an all Indian affair, as Sravya Shivani and Pranjala Yadlapalli set up a title clash against Sohini Mohanty and Mahika Khanna.

Published on Sep 19, 2025