The second round match was a lot closer than the scoreline suggests and Rao, India's highest-ranked tennis player after Sania Mirza, played her best against the 144-ranked Keothavong.Rao, 211 on the WTA list, managed to break the Briton's serve twice. She even had a better first-serve percentage and less doublefaults. But it was Keothavong who prevailed in the 80-minute battle at Kolkata's Netaji Indoor stadium.
Keothavong sent down 7 aces compared to zero for Rao and was the stronger player on crucial points. A string of unforced errors didn't help Rao much - she mishit at least two easy lobs during the match.
The result catapulted Keothavong into the record books as the first British woman to advance to a WTA Tour quarterfinal in 14 years.
But there is still hope for India in the doubles competition of the $175,000 hardcourt tournament.
Rao and Australia's Monique Adamczak have assured themselves of at least $2140 in prize money after securing a semifinal berth. In the first round, the duo defeated Indian American Neha Uberoi and Poland's Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-4 and later had the benefit of a walkover over fourth seeded Italians Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta. Errani had withdrawn after complaining of lower back pain.
Top seeds Vania King of the US and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia put paid to the only other Indian hope by beating Tara Iyer and Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 5-7, 10-4 in the doubles quarter-finals.
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