By IANS,
Pune : Eighth seeded Jing Jing Lu of China shocked top seed Melanie South of Britain to lift the $25,000 NECC-ITF women’s tennis Championships here Saturday.
In the finals, the 19-year-old and 245th ranked Lu outclassed South, ranked 116th, 6-3, 6-1.
Both players traded serve till the sixth game but Lu broke South in the eighth game to go up 5-3 and then held her serve in the next to win the first set.
In the second set, Lu allowed South to win only one game to win the match in a little over an hour.
“I am very happy to win here and it’s my first ITF victory in two years,” said Lu.
“This win has given me tremendous confidence and I hope to do well in the coming year and hope to get into the top-200 bracket by the end of the next year.”
South admitted that she was outplayed by Lu.
“I am disappointed that I lost, but Lu played amazing tennis, and chased every ball and came out with unbelievable winners,” said South.
Lu gained 25 WTA points and a purse of $2,940 whereas South received 17 points and $1,666 for her effort.