News

Top seed Prerna Bhambri of India lived up to her top billing, coming from a set down to defeat giant killer, compatriot and un-seeded Riya Bhatia 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 to clinch the singles crown at the KUDA Kalaburagi ITF $10,000 Women’s Tennis Tournament here on Saturday. In a battle befitting of a final, 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 2 hours and 32 minutes with both players giving it their best, Prerna emerging 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. She held advantage twice and each time Riya leveled. The one break point that Riya got, she converted to claim the set.

The second set saw games being traded. Riya claimed the first three 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 at another break eighth game but the top seed dug deep into her reserves to hold serve and to the delight of the crowd served out for the match to claim the winner’s cheque for Rs 1,19,059 and 12 ITF Points. This is the third title for Bhambri who won the Fenesta Open Nationals and the Lucknow Open.

Riya had to be content with 7 ITF points

Doubles winners Druthi Tatachar Venugopal and Karman Kaur Thandi shared $637 while runners-up Prerna Bhambri and Kanika Vaidya shared $343. Druthi and Karman earned 12 doubles points and the runners-up earned 7 points.

Chief Guest, Mr Qamarul Islam, , Minister Municipalities and Local Bodies, Wakf and Minority Welfare, gave away the awards to the winners and finalists in the Presence of KSLTA Sr Vice President Mr Laxminarayan, Vice President Mr Radhakrishna and Hon Jt Secretary, AITA & Hon Secretay KSLTA , Mr Sunder Raju.

Soha Gets Wild Card For Kalaburagi Open

Bangalore girl Soha Sadiq was granted a wild card into the main draw of the Kalaburagi Open, which starts here from Monday. Abhinikka Renganathan, Varunya Chandrashekar and US based student Kanika Vaidya were the other three Indians to be handed out wild cards. The qualifying rounds which started today saw 21 players signing in.