Megha on cloud nine after ITF title win over Sonal

A trip to Jakarta last week for World Youth Cup did a world of good to Megha’s confidence that enabled her beat Sonal. Before this game, Megha had beaten Sonal only once.

The summit clash had a promising start as neither of the contestants appeared willing to concede a single point without a fight. Both players failed to hold serve for the first five games and Megha lead 3-2. She finally held her serve in the sixth game to go 4-2 up.

Sonal fought back with some splendid passing shots and despite three double faults in that game, she managed to hold serve and bridge the gap to 4-3. But Megha held on her next two serves to win the set 6-4 in 40 minutes.

Sonal had a bad start in the second set as she began with a double fault. But she soon recovered and the game went to three deuces. Finally, Megha broke her to go 1-0 up.

Both players held on to their serves for the next four games. Sonal broke Megha in the sixth game but Megha broke back in the next to go 4-3 up. She then did not look back and held her serve to win the set 6-4 in 32 minutes.

A delighted Megha said, “I had no specific strategy and took it one game at a time.” Megha dedicated the win to her father who came to watch the match despite running a temperature. On the other hand, Sonal was clueless as to what went wrong but admitted that Megha played well. Megha pocketed $³650 while Sonal had to be content with $³450.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Sonal made short work of Radhika Mandke 6-4 6-4 while Megha sidelined Shalini Thakur in a hard-fought battle 7-6 (8-6) 7-5.

In the doubles semi-finals, the Venkatraman sisters, Aarti and Archana defeated Sonia Shelar and Isha Lakhani 6-4 6-2 while Shalini Thakur-Karishma Patel beat Sonal Phadke-Nona Waugh 7-6 (10-8), 6-2.