The Hindu : Sport : It's Ankita's day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 29, 2006

Sport

Sport

It's Ankita's day

Kamesh Srinivasan

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

CHAMPION STUFF: Ankita Bhambri made up for the disappointment on Friday with a straight-set triumph in the singles final.

NEW DELHI: The second-seeded Ankita Bhambri beat Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan 6-4, 6-3 in a match lasting an hour-and-a-half to win the title in the ITF women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

Not playing at her best, Ankita, however, picked her third singles title at this level and the fifth overall in the ITF women's circuit.

The contest witnessed ten breaks of serve, perhaps a typical scenario in the women's game. The 19-year-old Ankita started on the right note, holding serve at love, but thereafter she faced breakpoints in eight of her next nine service games.

What was heartening was the fact that Ankita was able to serve big at the crunch and she held on gamely to the advantage despite not being able to stroke fluently or flawless. She had her first matchpoint in the eighth game but the 16-year-old Palkina came up with a rare big serve to extend the battle by another game.

Eventually, Ankita was able to convert her fourth matchpoint as Palkina put her backhand wide.

Palkina lacked the energy, both physical and mental, to make a match of it. It was her third singles final on the trot following the two in the ITF junior circuit and she lacked the bounce in her feet.

The winner collected $1568 and six WTA points while the runner-up had to be content with $960 and four WTA points.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail