Dalila Jakupovic reaches Aurangabad Open semi-finals

Aurangabad: Slovakian Dalila Jakupovic entered the semi-finals along with Belgian Marie Benoit, Bulgarian Aleksandrina Naydenova and lone surviving seed Xinyun Han of China at the $25,000 Aurangabad Open Women’s ITF Championships here Thursday.

In the quarters, Jakupovic reached the last four without a sweat as she beat Japanese sixth seed Riko Sawayanagi. Jakupovic won the first set 6-3 and was leading 1-0 in the second when the Japanese pulled out due to cramps.

Jakupovic will take on 19-year-old left-handed tennis player Benoit, who outplayed Brit Harriet Dart 6-2, 6-0 in less than an hour. Benoit, who won a $10,000 event in Egypt in January, will look to make her maiden $25,000 event final.

Naydenova toppled Chinese second seed Kai-Lin Zhang 6-4, 6-1 in two hours. The 22-year-old will take on another Chinese, Han, in the semis. The eighth seeded Han scored a 7-5, 6-1 win over Valentyna Ivakhnenko of Russia in an hour and 57 minutes.