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What's the story?
India's Ankita Raina won the women's singles title at the $25,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Jodhpur.
In case you didn't know
Ankita Raina is India's highest ranked women's singles player on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour with a current ranking of 177. She broke into the top 200 rankings on the WTA tour in April 2008, thereby becoming only the 5th Indian player to do so. The highest point in her career was bagging a bronze medal in women's singles at the 2018 Asian Games.
The heart of the matter
India's Ankita Raina bagged the women's singles title at the $25,000 ITF tournament held at the Sardar Club, Ratanada in Jodhpur. In the final, she cruised past Berfu Cengiz of Turkey 7-5, 6-1.
The first set in the final was a close-fought affair with the Indian eventually prevailing 7-5. Playing with greater degree of confidence after having won the first set, she totally outplayed her opponent in the second set and went on to win the set 6-1 and with it the match.
This was the 27-year old's second singles title this year and 11th overall in her career. It was a dominant performance by the Indian right through the tournament as she went on to bag the title without dropping a set in the whole tournament.
With this win, Ankita Raina is expected to rise up the ranking charts and crack the top 160 in the WTA rankings for the first time in her career. She also reached the women's doubles final at the tournament partnering Snehal Mane, who is also trained by her coach Hemant Bendrey in Pune. But they lost in the finals to the Indo-Japanese duo of Rutuja Bhosale and Miyabi Inoue, going down 6-4, 4-6, 8-10.
What's next?
Ankita Raina would be participating in other tournaments on the ITF and WTA tour. She would be hoping to continue this winning momentum and rise up the ranking charts. Her aim would be to qualify for the main draw of the three remaining Grand Slam tournaments this year.
Also see | ATP Dubai Tennis Championships: Leander Paes and Prajnesh Gunneswaran carry Indian hopes
