The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ankita wins title

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Sunday, Jun 07, 2009
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Ankita wins title

NEW DELHI: Ankita Bhambri made light of a feeble challenge from He Chun Yan of China 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

It was more a challenge against her own physical fitness rather than a test of her tennis skill for the top-seeded Ankita and she pulled through purely on her experience. The Chinese was a straight-forward player and lacked the craft to stretch a player of the calibre of Ankita.

Thus, there was nothing to worry for the 22-year-old Ankita except for her own rustiness that saw her drop serve while trying to finish the first set in the eighth game, and later while trying to close out the match in the seventh game of the second set.

After having lost in the second round last week, Ankita had trained hard for the second tournament. The draw panned out nicely for her as she beat three Indian opponents to make the semifinals and had found her rhythm to a reasonable degree of satisfaction by then to race past a Korean in the semifinal and the Chinese in the final.

“It has been a long time since I won a tournament. The last time it was in Aurangabad in 2007. It will take some time for me to get back my complete fitness, but I am working towards that,” said Ankita.

It was a double crown for Ankita as she had won the doubles title along with her sister Sanaa earlier. Quite surprisingly, Sanaa was not present for the prize distribution and Ankita did not tire of collecting three trophies in the presentation ceremony from one of the seasoned coaches at the DLTA, Nar Singh. — Special Correspondent

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