Prerna Bhambri won her maiden ITF Futures singles title after stunning top seed Keren Shlomo in straight sets in the summit clash of the USD 10,000 tournament here on Saturday.
Playing her first ever ITF singles final, the 18-year-old Indian outplayed her Israeli rival 6-2, 6-3 in little less than an hour at the DLTA complex.
Prerna thus bettered her performance of the last week, when she was stopped in the semifinals of the USD 10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament. Before this she had appeared in four singles semifinals in all.
Prerna backed herself with some impeccable groundstrokes and was also helped by the numerous unforced errors by Keren, whose serve deserted her in crucial junctures.
It looked as if Prerna had saved her best for the most important match as she raced to a 4-1 lead in both the sets and never looked back.
"It was very special winning the title in front of my family. I made a lot of unforced errors in the semifinals but
I was able to keep them under check today. My coach (Aditya Sachdeva) told me to play my game and I did just that," Prerna said.
{{/usCountry}}I was able to keep them under check today. My coach (Aditya Sachdeva) told me to play my game and I did just that," Prerna said.
{{/usCountry}}