Slovenia’s Tadeja Majeric presented herself a New Year gift by winning her maiden singles title with a hard-fought win over Turkey’s Basak Eraydin in the final of the NECC ITF Women’s USD 25,000 tennis tournament, in Pune on Saturday.
Majeric overcame a fighting and giant-killer Basak Earydin 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 18 minutes in the summit clash to win her maiden ITF singles title.
Making her third visit to the city memorable, it was doubly sweet for Majeric since she had won the doubles title on Friday in the company of Swiss Conny Perrin.
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A baseliner, Majeric did lose some composure midway through the second set when Eraydin forced her to come to the nets, but the Slovenian held on gamely.
“I was a bit nervous going into the final match. Maybe slightly emotional as I wanted to win the title and close the year on a high note,” said Majeric, who earned 50 ranking points for her effort and USD 2940 as prize money.
Majeric opened the first set by breaking Earydin in the first game, but the Turkish player shot back by leveling the scores by winning the second game. The Slovenian wasn’t ready to give up easily as Majeric made it 1-2 before holding her own serve to widen the gap (1-3).
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“I had good tactics going into the match. I played on her backhand, which is her weak points,” explained Majeric.
Precisely so as Majeric broke Earydin for the third time in the first set, taking the fifth game for 4-1 lead before serving out the set 6-2. Both players began the second set on a cautious note as the game went with the serves till 3-3 before Majeric found that break when Earydin committed several unforced errors.
Majeric’s passing winners saw her take the ninth game and when she served for the match, it was an eventuality that Earydin could not avoid.