The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Hat-trick of titles for Tara Iyer

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Sunday, Sep 02, 2007
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Hat-trick of titles for Tara Iyer

Special Correspondent

— Photo: V. Sudershan

ON A ROLL: Tara Iyer’s brilliant run continued as she won her third consecutive singles title.

NEW DELHI: Tara Iyer capped her fine run with a brilliant performance as she outplayed Kyung-Yee Chae of Korea 7-5, 6-2 in the final of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament here on Saturday.

In the process, the 19-year-old Tara performed a hat-trick as she had won the singles titles in her last two tournaments at Wrexham and Noida over the past three weeks.

It was the fourth singles title at this level for the Delhi girl who is coached by her father Parameswaran Iyer and Aditya Sachdeva. She had won her maiden title in Portugal in June.

“These tournaments are stepping stones to get to the higher level and one has to go through them. I hope to do well in the bigger tournaments soon,” said Tara. She had won the doubles title on Friday with Nungnadda Wannasuk of Thailand.

Creditable show

Incidentally, Tara had dropped only one set the whole week in nine matches of singles and doubles — quite a creditable fare from the wiry girl who packs a punch in her serve and strokes.

Tara started on a bright note, as she served big and ran up a 3-1 lead, having broken the Korean at love in the opening game.

There was a brief spell of fluctuating fortunes as the Korean qualifier showed her fighting qualities to break back in the sixth game and served strongly to take a 5-4 lead, saving breakpoints in the seventh and ninth games. It was here that Tara stepped up her game and reeled off the next seven games, leaving the left-hander far behind in the race for the title.

Tara was at her fighting best in the 12th game, as she saved two breakpoints, and converted her second setpoint in style with an ace down the middle.

Breezing through

Once she changed her attire at the interval as she was drenched because of the high humidity, Tara just breezed through the second set, as she maintained the momentum.

Tara struck as many as 27 winners and served five aces. The Korean, not at her fighting best, hit 15 winners and four aces.

“I was tired coming into the match, but wanted to compete. I kept attacking though I was not getting everything right at the beginning. I did not hold back and I am glad that it proved right,” said Tara. She will be off to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Sunday, for the $100,000 Asian Championship, in which the singles winners in the men’s and women’s sections get wild cards for the Australian Open.

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