Monday, Sep 02, 2002
Monday, Sep 02, 2002 |
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Tennis
The sixth-seeded Megha, ranked a modest 1045 on the WTA computer, won her maiden title with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over the unranked Michelle Snyman of South Africa. The talented left-hander from Mumbai went on to clinch the doubles title, rather authoritatively in partnership with Prariyawan Ratanakrong of Thailand. The Indo-Thai combination beat Megan Emmett and Annabel Youthed of Britain 6-3, 6-0 in the final. The duo had escaped the clutches of the top-seeded Yomna Farid and Amani Khalifa of Egypt at 8-6 in the second set tie-break on way to a three-set triumph in the semifinals. Megha had also played three consecutive three-setters in singles before cruising to the trophy in the final. The effort was worth 1600 in singles for Megha, who also collected her share of 325 dollars for the doubles triumph. Megha follows Sai Jayalakshmy who had won a double crown recently in Algeria. It was a creditable fare from the 18-year-old Megha, as her previous best was making the quarterfinals at the $10,000 level. She had won the doubles crown in partnership with Isha Lakhani in the Masters event of the $5,000 circuit some time back. Megha will play another tournament at the same venue in Lagos this week before returning to India for the two $10,000 tournaments in Mysore and Hyderabad over the following fortnight. Manisha Malhotra, Rushmi Chakravarti and Radhika Tulpule are the other Indians to have won the singles title in the $10,000 tournaments, apart from Sai. It should be a huge boost to her confidence for Megha, who has been training hard in recent times to resurrect her career after a noticeable slump in form and the resultant dip in confidence. ``It is a brilliant achievement for Megha who turned 18 midway during the tournament. There is no more restriction for her to play tournaments. It is something to win a double crown abroad. There was never any doubt about her potential, but Megha seems to have started focussing a lot better on her game now. The training stint in the U.S. seems to have helped her. The results are bound to improve a lot further'', said the Development officer of the AITA, Sunil Yajaman. Indeed, there has never been any doubt about the immense talent of Megha, as has been the case with many other girls, but the results had been eluding for a long time. Perhaps, Megha has taken the first sure step towards setting the record straight. If anything, it is a very encouraging sign for Indian women's tennis.
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