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Yuki triumphs again

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: Sandeep Saxena

PROUD CHAMP: Yuki Bhambri poses with the trophy after defeating Raven Klaasen of South Africa in the final.

NEW DELHI: Yuki Bhambri tamed the top-seeded Raven Klaasen of South Africa 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in an hour and 40 minues in the final of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

It was a perfect climax to two weeks of excellent tennis by the 16-year-old Yuki, as the World No.1 junior emerged victorious for the second time in the professional circuit without dropping a set in the whole tournament.

Except for facing a breakpoint in the sixth game of the first set, and dropping his serve at love in the seventh game of the second set, after he had led 4-2, Yuki rarely put a foot wrong, in front of a capacity crowd that was delighted with his performance. Actually, he gave away only seven points in all in his other ten service games, which provided a hint about his firm foundation, the strong serves, though five doublefaults did tease him a bit, as against seven aces.

Light on feet

Young and fearless, Yuki was able to play his game to the best of his ability throughout, and he was pretty light on his feet, moving for the kill. The occasional glaring errors when he went for the big shots at the slightest opportunity, did not deter him from retaining his attacking approach.

It was a high quality match, and Yuki was able to take the fight to the 26-year-old Klaasen who could feel the pressure at the crunch, especially in the two nerve-wracking tie-breaks. A superb athlete with an all-round game, Klaasen made uncharacteristic volleying errors in losing the first set tie-break, and it was almost a similar case in the second set when his hands froze while attempting the groundstrokes.

Even better

“This one is even better than last week. It feels great to win back to back titles. I think, it is a tremendous job,” said Yuki, understandably pleased with his accomplishment that has fetched him 50 ATP points over a fortnight of toil. He should figure in the top 700 of the men’s world ranking list from the unflattering 1458 at the moment.

“This was one of the toughest matches I have played. I am happy that I could play my game against a quality player and beat him. First week, I was hungry, and this week, I was more relaxed. It gives me a lot of confidence, and I realise that it is just a matter of developing your game to make further progress,” said Yuki, who will be competing in two Futures tournaments in Kuwait before the French Open junior event.

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