By Third seed Karman Kaur Thandi beat fourth seed Yuliia Starodubteva of Ukraine 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in the final of the 60,000 USD ITF women’s tournament in Evansville, USA on Sunday.
It is the second title at this level for the 25-year-old Karman, following the one in Saguenay, Canada, in October last year. Overall, it was the fourth singles title for Karman, who had won two last season including the only one at home in Gurugram.
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In a hard fought battle that lasted two hours and 45 minutes, the wiry Karman asserted her strong game in the decider when she dropped a mere 11 points to her 23-year-old opponent. She converted five of 11 break points in the match to pull through. She had not dropped a set in the earlier four rounds.
Interestingly, Starodubtseva had beaten Karman in the final of a similar tournament last month in three sets, in Sumter, USA.
The title helped Karman jump 51 places on the ranking list to 210. She is the second best after Ankita Raina (200).
“After two runner-up finishes, this victory comes at a good time to boost Karman’s confidence as she prepares for the US Open”, said long-time coach and Director of the RoundGlass Academy, Aditya Sachdeva, from Chandigarh.
