Wildcard entrant Rutuja Bhosale grabbed her first professional title after returning from the US, as she won the $15000 Endurance Aurangabad Open Women ITF Championship, beating Mahak Jain at the Divisional Sports Complex, Garkheda, on Saturday.
Rutuja, who was playing for Texas A&M in US College tennis, was given a wildcard entry and she justified the decision by winning the trophy. Her title came after a gap of five years.
In a closely fought final, Rutuja and 15-year-old Mahak broke each other’s serve thrice. Finally, in the 9th game, Rutuja got a decisive break and then held her serve to win the first set 6-4.
The second set saw some hard-hitting rallies. Rutuja rushed to a 4-2 lead, breaking Mahak in 5th and holding her serve in the next game. However, Mahak didn’t let her go easy, and levelled the scores 4-4. Rutuja repeated her performance and broke her opponent in the 9th game and held her serve in the 10th game to lay her hands on the trophy.
She received 12 WTA points and $2,352 along with the trophy, and will find herself ranked around 940 on the WTA list to be published next week. Mahak will get seven WTA points and $1,470 and will have to wait for one more event to get into the ranking list of WTA.
{{/usCountry}}She received 12 WTA points and $2,352 along with the trophy, and will find herself ranked around 940 on the WTA list to be published next week. Mahak will get seven WTA points and $1,470 and will have to wait for one more event to get into the ranking list of WTA.
{{/usCountry}}However, Rutuja missed a double crown as she along with Kanika Vaidya went down to Pranjala Yadlapalli and Xiaoxi Zhao of China 6-2, 3-6, 4-10. The doubles winners got $900 and 12 WTA points, while runners up received $510 and seven WTA points.
Results
Rutuja Bhosale (IND) bt Mahak Jain (IND) 6-4, 6-4
Doubles
Pranjala Yadlapalli/ Xiaoxi Zhao (Chn) bt Rutuja Bhosale/ Kanika Vaidya 2-6,6-3,10-4