Raina falters at final hurdle

Ankita Raina came up with a valiant effort but illness and a determined opponent stopped her from clinching her second successive womens singles crown in the $10,000 ITF Tennis tournament in Lucknow.

The top seed,who had won last week in Chennai,wasnt at her best against 8th seed Emi Mutaguchi of Japan and went down 3-6,7-6,6-1 in her fourth consecutive final on the ITF circuit.

However,the national grasscourt champion spared no effort on the court as she staged comebacks in the first two sets. In the opening set,Ankita lost her serve in the third game,but levelled in the sixth and then raced away with the set and a break in the eighth.

Ankita faced a bigger challenge in the second set as Mutaguchi raced to a 5-2 lead. However,the Indian was not prepared to throw in the towel and roared back with consecutive breaks to take the set to a tie-breaker.

However,Mutaguchi kept her nerves to clinch the tie-breaker and Ankita then crumbled in the decider. I was not feeling well. So I knew I had to finish this match in two sets. I tried my best but she played some good tennis, Ankita added.

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