Thai Luksika slays top seed Saisai to enter semis

Fifth seed Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand produced the biggest upset of the L and T Mumbai Open tennis tournament here Friday by knocking out top seed Saisai Zheng of China to enter the semi finals of the 125K WTA event.

Luksika fought back brilliantly after dropping the opening set, hitting hard and deep with her double-fisted forehand as well as backhand, besides attacking the net at opportune times, to carve out an impressive 3-6 6-4 6-4 victory in 2 hours and 17 minutes at the Cricket Club of India hard courts.

It was the second time in three meetings stretching back to 2013 that the Thai player, ranked 103rd, had beaten Saisai, ranked 47th who had made the second round of Wimbledon this year, and both her victories had come this year the first one in a 25K ITF event in Japan in April.

In their first ever meeting, Saisai had beaten the Thai woman in three sets in a 5k WTA event in her home country.

Incidentally the Chinese had sent India number two Karman Thandi ...