Wongteanchai and Zhang claim doubles Title

Pune , Nov 16 (UNI) Eighth seeded Isha Lakhani of India will lock horns with second seeded Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia in the finals of the women's singles, while Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand and Ling Zhang of Hongkong lifted the doubles title at the ,000 NECC ITF women's tennis championships at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts here today.

In the semi-finals today, Lakhani went through a harrowing time before getting the better of Hongkong's Zhang Ling 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 , while Gumulya of Indonesia stopped the winning spree of Russian Alexendra Panova 7-5, 6-3.

In a well contested Doubles Finals, youngsters Varatchaya Wongteanchai and Ling Zhang came back to outplay wildcard entrants Wynne Prakusya/ Angelique Widjaja (Indonesia) 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 (SuperTiebreak) to win their first ever career titles.

The left hander Lakhani, ranked 436 in the world, kept the Indian flag high in the event. She started poorly against the 518 ranked Zhang, being broken in the second and the sixth games, Zhang looked so dominant that Lakhani could manage only seven points in the set .

However, in second set Lakhani got back her composure and started hitting the ball well on both flanks, Lakhani first broke Zhang in the fourth game but lost her serve in the fifth to level scores. The players again traded breaks in the eighth and ninth games to take the score to 4-4. Lakhani got the decisive break against Zhang in the 10 game to level set scores at 1-1.

In the third set Lakhani took control of the match breaking Zhang in the 2nd game and then again in the sixth game to wrap up the two hour match and make it to her second career 25000 dollars event finals.

In the other semifinal Second seeded and world ranked Sandy Gumulya made it to the second consecutive final of a 25000 dollars event, after reaching the finals last week in Australia, Gumulya, a member of the Indonesian Federation cup, outplayed upcoming 670 ranked Russian Alexendra Panova 7-5, 6-3 in a match lasting 1 hour 24 minutes. Panova looked the winner all the way taking a 4-1 lead but the experienced Gumulya playing solidly from the baseline , mixing up her shots well to unsetlle Panova and broke her in the 7th and 11th game to win the first set 7-5, In the second set, Gumulya broke in the 7th and 9th games to score a 6-3 win.

Youngsters Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) and Ling Zhang exhibited some solid net game to score a creditable win over wild entrants Wynne Prakusya/ Angelique Widjaja (Indonesia) 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 (Super tiebreak) to win their first ever career titles.

The Doubles winners received 25 WTA points and 76 while the runners up got 18 WTA points and 686 dollar for their efforts.

Tournament Director Anand Tulpule gave away the trophies to the winners, while organizing secretary Nitin Joshi proposed the vote of thanks.

Following are the results (Semi Finals) (8) Isha Lakhani bt Zhang Ling (HKG) 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.

(2) Sandy Gumulya (Ind) bt Alexendra Panova (Rus) 7-5, 6-3.

Doubles (Finals) Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) / Ling Zhang (Hongkong) bt Wynne Prakusya/ Angelique Widjaja ( Indonesia) 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 (SuperTiebreak).

UNI