Ankita breaks title drought for Indians

PUNE: Ankita Raina has been running on empty for the last couple of weeks but that didn't stop her from adding a new chapter to Indian tennis. On Saturday, the 21-year-old Pune-based Gujarati girl won the $25,000 NECC ITF women's singles title, beating Britain's Katy Dunne 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour at the Deccan Gymkhana courts.
It's Raina's first singles title at this level and also the first by an Indian on home soil.The last Indian to win a $25,000 title was Sania Mirza, who won back-to-back in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2004. The only other Indian to have won a $25,000 singles crown so far is Nirupama Vaidynathan-Sanjeev, whose title in Bad Gogging, Germany, on indoor carpet in 1996 paved the path for her compatriots.
"It proves for all the Indians that we can do it. It's not as difficult as people think or speak about it," Raina said after the win.
The Ahmedabad-born player, coached by Hemant Bendrey, broke 19-year-old Dunne in the sixth and eighth games to take the opening set.
The Briton, whose first love is gymnastics but had to abandon it due to a shoulder injury at the age of 12, uncorked a break in first game of the second set, but Raina, who practises at the same venue, hit back by breaking thrice to clinch the title.
Dunne, playing in her first final, had lost in the opening round last week in Navi Mumbai and was undone by three net cords that went against her in the second set. She also consistently hit deep. All that only re-inforced Raina's mettle. It was her 28th week on court this year, excluding the Fed Cup, the Asian Games and the Premier Tennis League. Twenty-one of them have been on foreign soil.
Not surprisingly, her game this week was less about power and skill than guts and maturity. "The first half of the year I had points to defend and then I needed to win more points to go up in rankings," said Raina, who reached the final in Indonesia in June.
"I had to mentally push because I had not trained, so my fitness was gone and the shoulders were stiff. I was just mentally hanging in there."
That should explain the first round exit last week in Navi Mumbai. "Last week I had nothing (left in me)," she said with a tired smile.
On the positive side, Raina has been bitten by the WTA bug. "Once you play on the Tour, you don't feel like to coming back to the ITF circuit," her eyes glinted.
It's not only the organisational (and the pampering) aspects but also the game side of it ­ watching and hitting with the top pros ­ that has got her hooked. The 50 WTA points are likely to catapult her within 250 in world rankings from her current 294. Raina was also richer by $3,919 (approximately Rs. 2.5 lakh).
"The year is finally over," she said. And what a way to end it!