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Tennis
NEW DELHI, MARCH 2. She was not at her fluent best, but Eva Birnerova was good enough to score a 6-4, 7-5 victory over qualifier Shuai Peng in the final of the Syndicate Bank $25,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday. The 17-year-old Czech girl, who had enjoyed the World No. 1 junior ranking in October last year, was teased to her wit's end by the crafty play of the 16-year-old Chinese opponent, but had enough ammunition to fire her way past trouble on a cold and rainy day. There was a threat of the match meandering into the third set, when Eva landed two doublefaults in succession, her only doublefaults in the match, to drop the tenth game while serving for the match. However, the unseeded Czech, ranked an unflattering 364 on the WTA computer, smacked winners to wrest the initiative in the eleventh game, in which she broke back with considerable support from the tentative strokeplay of the Chinese. Eva missed a matchpoint in the 12th game, and had to save a breakpoint as well, but wound up the show in style, with an ace, her only ace in the match that had lasted an hour and 22 minutes. Once she got off the blocks briskly by winning a break in the first game on Shuai's serve, Eva retained the momentum all along till she revealed fragile nerves for the first time in the tenth game of the second set. The Czech saved two breakpoints in the fourth game of the second set, and converted the sixth breakpoint in winning a break in the fifth game, in which deuce was called 12 times. For someone, who smacks return winners at will, Eva was denied the pleasure this day by the clever variations of Shuai, and the Czech managed to hit only three return winners in the whole match. Two of those came in the fifth game, including the one that helped her convert the sixth breakpoint. Eva hit 25 winners to 14 by her opponent. She did err in going for her shots many a time, but stuck to her game plan and attacking style, which paid off eventually. The victory fetched $3,000 and 29 WTA points, including four bonus points, for Eva. Shuai Peng collected $1,700 and 22 WTA points, including five quality points. The results (finals): Singles: Eva Birnerova (Cze) bt Shuai Peng (Chn) 6-4, 7-5. Doubles: Young-Ja Choi and Eun-Ha Kim (Kor) bt Eva Birnerova and Jana Hlavackova (Cze) 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-3. Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic, who won the singles title in the Syndicate Bank-ITF women's circuit tennis tournament in New Delhi on Saturday, poses with the trophy. - Photo: S. Subramanium
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