Poojashree wins ITF title

For the 19-year-old from Mysore, it was first ITF tournament win at home and double to boot as she had won the doubles on Saturday along with Delhi girl Sanaa Bhambri.
In Poojashree’s words she played her “best match of the week” while Webley-Smith, who won the title here last week, showed signs of strain, lapsing into a stream of unforced errors.

The second-seeded tall Indian, on her part, served with purpose and timed her ground strokes well to seize the initiative from the top seed.

In fact, Poojashree was down 1-3 in the first set, being broken in the very first game, but hung on to break-back in the eighth and force a tie-break.

She was 0-3 down again in the tie-break and did well to save three set-points before closing out the set. Once she snatched the first set, Poojashree kept up the pressure in the second, breaking Webley-Smith in the first game and consolidated the position by breaking her again in the seventh to serve out the set and the match.

“She (Webley-Smith) is a very good and an experienced player and had won the tournament last week. I was a little nervous in the beginning but as the match progressed, I got better.” Poojashree said.

Webley-Smith,25, said the two weeks of back-to-back tennis took a toll on her.