Sport - Tennis

Sevastova outplays Sunitha for title

GREATER NOIDA: Unseeded Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia outplayed the second-seeded Sunitha Rao 6-2, 6-1 to clinch the title in the ITF tennis tournament at the Jaypee Greens Sports Complex here on Saturday.

The 17-year-old Sevastova played with such authority that it was tough for Sunitha to keep pace with her.

After stumbling to indifferent starts in both sets, dropping serve in the first game, it was an uphill task for Sunitha to fight on even terms against an opponent who hit with such effortless ease.

In fact, Sunitha faced break points in every one of her service games — 14 in all — and she did manage to save nine of them.

Struggling with her own serve, Sunitha was not able to exert much pressure on her opponent when the short-built Latvian faced breakpoints in the fourth, sixth and eighth games of the first set and Sevastova did hit herself out of trouble.

Into the second set, the 268th ranked Sevastova was confidence personified and dropped only two points in all in her three service games, to cruise home in an hour and 13 minutes.

In denying Sunitha a maiden singles title on the professional tour, Sevastova captured her third from six finals.

In comparison, it was Sunitha’s seventh final and the sixth at this level including one in the tournament at San Francisco last year.

Sunitha had made her maiden final as far back as in February 2002 at Mumbai, beating Sania Mirza in the first round then.

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