Double delight for Chinese Zhao

China8217;s Yi-Jing Zhao closed an evenly poised match against Sandhya Nagaraj to clinch the singles title of the 10,000 ITF Women8217;s tennis tournament at the DLTA stadium here today.

Zhao, seeded second at the tournament won 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. She came from being down 0-3 in the third set and dug deep to level the score 3-3 despite an injury to her right knee. From then on the two were neck and neck at five games apiece in the final set until Zhao broke Nagaraj to go up 6-5 and finally held her serve to seal the match.

An exhausted, but visibly pleased Zhao said she was happy to have won both the doubles and the singles titles at the tournament.

The Chinese teenager collected her winner8217;s cheque for 1568, while the Chennai-based runner-up went home richer by 980. Zhao8217;s win will boost her ITF rankings by six points, while Nagaraj will collect four.