India celebrated a rare success at the World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr on Tuesday as Vaishnavi Adkar stormed into the women’s singles tennis semifinals, securing at least a bronze medal. The 20-year-old Indian produced a commanding performance to defeat Germany’s Sina Herrmann 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. She will face Eszter Meri of Slovakia in the semifinals on Thursday. With her victory, Vaishnavi becomes only the second Indian ever to win a tennis medal at the World University Games, following Nandan Bal, who claimed silver in men’s singles back in 1979 in Mexico City. Under tournament rules, both losing semifinalists receive bronze, guaranteeing Vaishnavi a place on the podium. Medal Count Remains Sparse for India Despite Adkar’s success, India has only one other medal to show at the halfway point of the Games—a bronze in badminton’s mixed team event. Most other Indian athletes faltered in early rounds. Srihari Nataraj won his heat in the men’s 50m freestyle with a time of 23.06 seconds but failed to qualify for the semifinals, ranking 28th overall. The final qualifying time was 22.72 seconds. Other swimmers, including Nithik Nathella (200m backstroke), Nina Venkatesh, Latiesha Mandanna (50m freestyle), and Divyanka Pradhan with Naga Vasupalli (100m breaststroke), also failed to progress. The men’s 4×200m freestyle relay team—featuring Srihari, Aneesh, Shivank, and Shoan—finished seventh in their heat and did not qualify for the final. Mixed Fortunes in Archery In archery, Parneet Kaur led the way in the women’s compound ranking round, finishing first with a score of 701—just one point ahead of South Korea’s Yerin Park. Alongside Madhura Dhamangaonkar (6th, 687) and Avneet Kaur (22nd, 673), India’s women’s compound team secured second seeding and earned a bye to the quarterfinals, where they’ll face the winner of Italy vs Ukraine on Thursday. However, in men’s recurve, the Indian archers struggled. Aryan Rana placed highest among them at 29th (640), followed by Vishnu Chaudhary (42nd, 627) and Mrinal Chauhan (47th, 622). South Korea dominated the category, taking the top two spots. The Indian men’s recurve team finished 12th and will begin their knockout campaign against the fifth-seeded USA in the pre-quarterfinals. (with PTI inputs)