Sonal asserts her supremacy

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, JUNE 23. She is a cut above the rest. Sonal Phadke asserted her supremacy with a 6-1, 7-5 triumph over Samrita Sekar in the final of the $ 5000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

It was her second title from the three legs of the ongoing circuit, and the 19-year-old Sonal pocketed $ 650 for her success.

It did not matter that she could not win a double crown, as Sonal in partnership with Karishma Patel finished runner-up to Sheetal Goutham and Liza Pereira for the third time in the circuit, for the athletic Mumbai lass devotes total attention to her singles game.

For the record, Sheetal and Liza had won the finals in the first two legs in Mumbai and Indore in straight sets, and they did so again, completing the hat-trick with a 6-4, 6-1 victory. The effort fetched the team $ 325, while the runner-up had to be content with $ 175.

Although she has been teased by talented left-handers Megha Vakharia and Isha Lakhani on the way, the top-seeded Sonal has been demonstrating a mature game in this circuit.

It was again a competent display by her, as she handled the challenge from the hard-hitting Samrita Sekar with a touch of assurance.

It was Sonal all the way as she raced to a 6-1, 5-1 position, playing with authority, despite the energy-sapping experience the previous day.

There was a dip in the fare thereafter, but when the danger signals started blinking, with Samrita equalising at 5-5, Sonal did not flicker an eyelid and pulled through in style, with a string of attractive backhand down the line winners.

Sonal played a fine attacking game and hit 21 winners apart from delivering an ace in the hour-long exercise. She committed only 11 errors in the first set, but allowed herself to be stretched, with 20 mistakes in the second.

However, Sonal was stroking with such confidence that it would have required Samrita, who had stretched her to three sets in the final of the first leg in Mumbai, to be at her best to push the contest into three sets, let alone win it.

There were signs of things to come early on, when Samrita struggled to hold serve in the second game, and did so eventually by saving three breakpoints. She was broken in the fourth and sixth games, after Sonal had consolidated her position by saving a breakpoint with one of her winners in the third game.

Samrita held serve in the first game of the second set, but was broken in the third and fifth games. She was on the verge of elimination when Sonal held serve at 15 in the sixth game.

Having reached a stage where she had nothing to fear, Samrita started playing freely, and the 16-year-old played with usual flair to tease Sonal, who got broken in the eighth and tenth games rather easily, winning a solitary point.

Samrita was unable to swing the momentum to her advantage as she got broken in the 11th game in which she saved a breakpoint at 0- 40 with a backhand cross court winner, but undid her good work by putting a sitter volley wide when she could have hit it anywhere she liked.

Sonal sensed that it was time to close out the match, and hit three backhand down the line winners to set up three match points, and converted the third as Samrita put her backhand into the net after having saved the first two with her own winners.

Samrita had 15 winners, and 12 of them came in the second set. She had 38 errors, apart from four doublefaults. She thus had to be content with $ 450.

The real challenge for Sonal will be next week, in the Masters where the WTA points will come into play. For players of the calibre of Sonal, the WTA points mean more than all the money.

The results (finals): Singles: Sonal Phadke bt Samrita Sekar 6-1, 7-5.

Doubles: Sheetal Goutham and Liza Pereira bt Karishma Patel and Sonal Phadke 6-4, 6-1.

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