MUMBAI, APRIL 24: Radhika Tulpule felt good when she woke up this morning. Good enough to upset the top seed, as she later discovered, in the $ 5000 ITF Women's Circuit first leg final at the G A Ranade Tennis Centre.J Sai Jayalakshmy served a tired double fault, her sixth in the match, to let Tulpule convert her fifth match point into a maiden WTA title. Along with it came Rs 26,000 and a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the top-ranked player in the event. Tulpule lost just 11 games and did not drop a set in four matches of her first senior ITF event.Jayalakshmy overcame the singles horrors, which were accompanied by stomach cramps, by putting things together with Rushmi Chakravarthi in the doubles final. But not with ease, as 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 suggests.Shruti Dhawan and Sheethal Goutham, displaying spunk and a generous dosage of teen-age enthusiasm with devil-may-care attitude jolted the top seeds by snatching the first set 7-5.Big grins and giggles flowed, notwithstanding a second set washout, and a 0-5deficit in the decider. Dhawan held serve, Jayalakshmy's was ravaged again, and Goutham stayed steady. Two games separated the two and Jayalakshmy looked at the skies.But Chakravarthi spared further heartbreak for Jayalakshmy with another solid service game, which included one of her three aces in the match, to put an end to the one hour, 40 minute affair.TAME END: An anti-climatic singles final left both contestants in a daze. One hour and five minutes after the first shot was played, Tulpule could not believe she had won, Jayalakshmy could not figure out how she lost and Goutham, watching from the stands, needed to be pinched to believe it hadn't been a dream.The 17-year-old, who said the ease at which Jayalakshmy capitulated was surprising, seemed too scared to close the match while serving for it at 5-1 in the second. She netted a backhand return, hit one long, netted again and lost the opportunity.Jayalakshmy broke serve, as Tulpule served her only two double faults of the match, andthe improbable looked like happening.Again, at 30-40, Tulpule got her second match point, with a masterly forehand crosscourt she got her third and with Jayalakshmy erring on the backhand, Tulpule earned her fourth. But lost them all soon after.Three shots - a netted backhand, Jayalakshmy's volley and a forehand driven long by the Pune girl - delayed the inevitable.But, the feel-good feeling returned moments later when a deep backhand slice set up a backhanded punch for Tulpule and then Jayalakshmy served wrong.``I stuck to the game plan of hitting to her backhand, which is weaker, and it worked. But I am surprised at how easy it was,'' said Tulpule, who returns home for a few hours of bonding with parents before she heads for the second leg at Bangalore.Results (all finals)Singles: Radhika Tulpule bt J Sai Jayalakshmy 6-3, 6-2. Doubles: J Sai Jayalakshmy/Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Shruti Dhawan/Sheethal Goutham 5-7, 6-0, 6-3.
