Peng wins ITF Futures crown

Unseeded Shuai Peng of China continued her giant-killing run to beat eighth seed Sunith Rao and win the ITF Futures women's tennis tournament on Saturday.

At the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association, in Mumbai, on Saturday, the Chinese won 6-3, 7-6.

The match was one of the best witnessed during the tournament, with the 17-year-old Peng, who had shocked sixth seed Suchanan Viratprasert of Thailand on Friday, sticking to the baseline and US-based Rao playing some attacking tennis.

Peng had won the junior championship in China last year while the 16-year-old Rao is a member of the US junior team.

Peng started by winning the first set. It was the first time that a player had taken a set off Rao in the tournament.

However, Rao came back strongly in the second set and won the first two games. Undeterred, Peng fought back and went into the lead, only for Rao to level scores at 6-6.

In the tie-breaker, after each player took a point, Peng won five straight points and was one point short of the championship when Rao fought back by taking two points. However, Peng won the next point for the championship, to leave a disappointed Rao wondering where she went wrong.

Speaking to rediff.com after the match, Peng's coach said, "Rao is a good player. Our game plan was to serve well and give a good return. The rest would fall into place and Peng stuck to it."

Rao paid compliments to the Chinese. "Peng played well. I tried to play my normal aggressive game but could not get my serves right and neither my shots."

"I made a lot of errors and conceded points unnecessarily. I was not able to get into a rhythm," she added.

The Chinese collected five WTA points and Rs 74,880 in prize-money while Rao got four WTA points and Rs 46,800.

Photographs: Jewella Miranda

Earlier report:
Sunita Rao, Shuai Peng in final