ITF Women's Open: Ankita capitulates, Brenda capitalises

The 15-year-old from Czech Republic staged a remarkable comeback to beat home favourite Ankita Raina 0-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the final of the ITF Women’s Open

Brenda Fruhvirtova kisses the ITF Women Open trophy at KSLTA courts in Bengaluru. DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V

Trailing 0-6, 0-3, top seed Brenda Fruhvirtova took a medical time-out. This was perhaps more to calm her mind than allow her left calf muscle to heal while being worked by the physio.

And those few minutes by the side of the court did wonders to the 15-year-old from the Czech Republic as she staged a remarkable comeback to beat home favourite Ankita Raina 0-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the final of the ITF Women’s Open here.

With the crowd at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) backing fourth-seeded Ankita who looked well on her way of causing an upset to lift her biggest title yet, Brenda on the opposite side of the court looked mostly out of sorts at the beginning.

“I wasn’t feeling good at all physically. My mind was urging me to keep fighting and stay in the match but my game was letting me down,” said Brenda.

“My left calf has been a bit of a problem the entire week. After the break, I took one point at a time and pulled through the second. I think Ankita was broken mentally after that because it is tough to be leading and then lose a set,” she offered.

The 30-year-old Ankita, who began in a blazing fashion, did hardly anything wrong to run away with the first set in a little more than 30 minutes. Brenda struggled to cope with the afternoon heat.

Having won as many as eight ITF titles last year, Brenda then dug deep into her reserves to claw back up. With her confidence receiving a much-needed boost after pocketing the second set, the momentum shifted.

Her powerful groundstokes coupled with sharper serves and drop shots dented the hopes of a tiring Ankita. Brenda went on to lift her first title of this season to move closer to the top-100 in world ranking.