Yuki wins Karshi ITF Futures trophy

Yuki Bhambri clinched the USD 15,000 ITF Futures tournament here today with a straight-set win over Dzmitry Zhyrmont and ensured that he will get entry into the French Open qualifying event.
The 22-year-old Yuki, seeded second, overcame his Belarusian third seed rival 6-2 6-4 in the final and pocketed 27 ranking points which will take him to a rank between 215 and 220.
"Competing in the Slams kept me motivated to play here and I am gald that it paid off," Yuki told PTI.
French Open, the Clay Court Grand Slam will begin May 19.
Asked why he chose to play in an ITF Futures event instead of an ATP Challenger, where there are more ranking points are available, Yuki said he had to shelve his plan last minute.

"My initial plan was to play the Batman challenger in Turkey but I wasn't getting into the initial entry list and also it was quite a pain getting there as they had shut the airport so decided to come to Uzbekistan and play the Future," he said.

It was Yuki's 10th ITF Futures singles title but the Delhi lad said now it was not easy to win even a Futures trophy.
"I feel Futures have become tougher. The level has gone up and you end up playing Challenger level players from the quarters onwards. I had to fight from the second round itself where I played Vishnu Vardhan and it's definitely not easy winning the tournament," he said.

"I had to be very focused and also had to deal with the pressure of knowing that I expected myself to win.