JOIN USFancied Prerna triumphs
Top seed Prerna Bhambri of India lived up to her billing as she rallied from a set down to end her compatriot Riya Bhatia’s giant-killing streak with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win in the final of the KUDA Kalaburagi ITF $10,000 Women’s Tennis Tournament here on Saturday.
In a battle befitting of the finale, Riya and Prerna dished out top class tennis that had the near capacity crowd at the Chandrashekar Patil Stadium cheering every point. The contest lasted two hours and 32 minutes with both players giving it their best before Prerna emerged the better player on the day.
The first set saw games going with serves till 5-4 and Prerna serving to stay in the set. Leading 40-15, Prerna committed two double faults to set up deuce. The one break point that Riya got, she converted to claim the set.
The second set saw Riya claiming the first three and breaking Prerna in the second game. Prerna repeated the feat winning the next three. The players then held serves till 5-5, before Prerna broke Riya and then served out to clinch the set 7-5.
Prerna moved into top gear in the decider breaking Riya in the first and seventh games while being broken in the sixth.
Riya did have her chances as another break came in the eighth game but Prerna held and served out for the match and 12 ITF points.
This is the third title for Bhambri after the Fenesta Open Nationals and Lucknow Open.
Riya had to be content with seven ITF points.
Doubles winners Druthi Tatachar Venugopal and Karman Kaur Thandi shared $637 while runners-up Prerna and Kanika Vaidya shared $343. Druthi and Karman earned 12 doubles points and the runners-up earned seven points.
Wild card for Soha
Bengaluru girl Soha Sadiq was granted a wild card into the main draw of the Kalaburagi Open, another ITF event, which starts here from Monday. Abhinikka Renganathan, Varunya Chandrashekar and US based student Kanika were the other three Indians to be handed wild cards.