By IANS,
Gurgaon : By the sheer weight of her vast experience, Rushmi Chakravarthi outplayed Ankita Bhambri to clinch the signles title at the $10,000 ITF tournament at the National Tennis Academy (NTA) courts here Saturday.
The 30-year-old fourth seed from Tamil Nadu beat the error-prone third seed Ankita in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, as she cleverly kept the ball in play for her opponent from Delhi to make mistakes galore.
Rushmi was a little sluggish to start with as her three-setter against Vietnamese Thuy-dung Nguyen Friday obviously took a toll of her. Once she got into her rhythm, there was no stopping and in the end it was a convincing victory as she bamboozled Ankita varying the pace of her shots.
Ankita was not quick on her feet and and that made her attempt fanciful shots with an ungainly swing. She had trouble holding her serve and was broken in the fifth and seventh game to concede the first set to Rushmi in 42 minutes.
Rushmi took the charge early in the second set and there was little that Ankita could do after being broken in the third and seventh game.
“I was a little tired after yesterday’s long match against the Vietnamese and it took a little while for me to get into the act. The first set was the key. I knew if I let her (Ankita) take the early advantage, I will be in trouble. I was serving well and that took care of the match. It feels good to win. Right now I am playing more out of experience,” said a satisfied Rushmi who plans to take some time off after the second ITF tournament next week.
A dejected Ankita admitted that she was nowhere her best. ” I just didn’t play my game and committed far too many mistakes,” she said.