Wild card Rutuja lifts ITF singles title

Wild card Rutuja Bhosale capped her fine run by clinching the singles title as she stopped the winning run of teenage rival Mahak Jain in the USD 15,000 Endurance Aurangabad Open Women's ITF Tennis Championships here today.
The Maharashtra player, in her first professional event after her return from playing the US, justified the faith of the organisers in awarding a wild card to her by stopping the march of 16-yer-old MP girl Mahak 6-4 6-4 in 1 hour and 24 minutes. It was her first title win in India after a gap of 5 years.
The Indo-Chinese pair of Pranjala Yadlapalli and Xiaoxi Zhao, however, denied Rutuja a double crown by winning the women's doubles title.

In a well-contested singles final, Rutuja and Mahak traded service breaks thrice before the senior player got a decisive break in the 9th game and held her serve in the next
In the second set, Rutuja broke her rival in the 5th game and then held her own in the next to go up 4-2. However, Mahak played well from the baseline to break back in the 8th to level scores at 4-4.
But Mahak was broken by Rutuja in the very next game with the help of three forehand winners before the latter held her serve in the tenth to win the set and the match.

Rutuja pocketed 12 WTA points and USD 2,352 while Mahak secured 7 WTA points and won USD 1,470.
Rutuja, however, could not complete a double crown as she and her doubles partner Kanika Vaidya were beaten in the final by Pranjala and Zhao of China who won 2-6 6-3 10-4.
The winners got USD 900 and 12 WTA points while the runners-up won USD 510 and got 7 WTA points.