Jakupovic secures her second straight crown
Jakupovic and Shrivalli pose with their prizes.
Second seed Dalila Jakupovic beat Shrivalli Bhamidipaty 63, 62 in the final of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club on Sunday.
It was the second singles title in a row for the 32yearold Slovenian following the double crown last week in Nagpur.
It was an anti climax for the fans as Shrivalli had a fine run beating top seed Irina Bara of Romania, Viktoria Morvayova of Slovakia, Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania and Polina Iatcenko of Russia dropping
just one set along the way.
Anil Dhupar, the secretarygeneral of All India Tennis Association (AITA), put things in perspective during the presentation ceremony, when he revealed the 22yearold Indian had been admitted to hospital overnight with high fever, heat stroke and dehydration apart from an upset stomach.
Discharged only in the morning, she had very little time for any preparation to play the final with full energy.
In such a situation, it was brave on the part of Shrivalli to have stepped on court and make a fight of it, even as the crafty Dalila gauged her level of strength with repeated drop shots.
Given the constraints, Shrivalli did play better as the match progressed, but could not capitalise on her chances. She could convert only one of nine break points in the match.
In contrast, the experienced Dalila played sharp, moving the opponent around the court all the time, and converted five of six break points to clinch the contest in just over an hour.
It was the eighth singles title for Dalila who was ranked a careerhigh 69 in 2018. She did not drop a set in the whole tournament and conceded only 24 games in all to her five opponents.