Samrita Sekar wins ITF crown

Eighth seed Samrita Sekar shocked third seed and national champion Sai Jayalakshmi in the final to win the $5,000 Indian Oil Servo-ITF women's tennis tournament at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana in Mumbai on Saturday.

The 17-year-old Samrita won 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

Giant-killer Samrita, who had accounted for second seed Radhika Tulpule and fourth seed Sonal Phadke in the earlier rounds, was a picture of confidence as she systematically went about her demolition job.

Samrita broke the 25-year-old Sai in the very first game of the first set but failed to hold her own serve in the next game. However, she broke her rival again in the third, fifth and seventh games to win the set 6-1.

In the second set, Sai pulled up her socks and with breaks in the fifth and seventh games managed to win the set 6-3.

In the deciding set, Samrita broke Sai in the third game but again failed to hold her own serve in the next game as the scores were levelled 2-all. Samrita then saved two break-points to hold serve in the the sixth game for a 3-all score-line and then broke Sai in the seventh game only to drop her serve in the eight game.

However, she broke Sai in the 11th game and then served out the set and match at 7-5 to claim her first ITF title.

Earlier reports Sekar, Jayalakshmi in ITF final
Samrita Sekar shocks Tulpule on way to semis