The Hindu : Sai wins title in Algeria

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Sai wins title in Algeria

ALGEIRS JULY 17 . Sai Jayalakshmy won the singles title in the $10,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament in Tlemcen here in Algeria last week. The third-seeded Sai defeated the fifth-seeded Elisabeth Bahn of Austria 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 after being 2-5 down in the first set.

However, Sai and Rushmi Chakravarti lost the doubles final, in the third-set tie-break, to the Austrian pair of Susanne Aigner and Elisabeth Bahn.

This week, Sai could not continue with her good work, and lost the first round to Susanne Filipp of Austria 4-6, 6-4, 4-6. In doubles also, the top-seeded Sai and Rushmi went down in the first round 6-1, 4-6, 5-7 to Julia Gandia and Mireia Gol Alamo of Spain.

Top-seeded Rushmi, who lost in the quarterfinals last week, made it to another quarterfinals. She beat Jenny Zika of Austria 6-2, 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals after beating Habiba Efrakh of Morocco 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.

The results: Tlemcen: singles (final): Sai Jayalakshmy bt Elisabeth Bahn (Aut) 7-5, 0-6, 6-4; Semifinals: Sai w-o Lisa Tognetti (Ita); Quarterfinals: Sai bt Jenny Zika (Aut) 6-4, 6-1; Elisabeth Bahn bt Rushmi Chakravarti 6-3, 6-3; Pre-quarterfinals: Sai bt Iman Malovfi (Alg) 6-0, 6-1; Rushmi bt Sana Bensalah (Alg) 6-4, 6-2; First round: Sai bt Marnie Mahler (Ger) 6-2, 6-1; Rushmi bt Julia Virobicva (Rus) 6-0, 6-4. Doubles (final): Susanne Aigner/Elisabeth Bahn (Aut) bt Sai Jayalakshmy/Rushmi Chakravarti 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4); Semifinals: Sai/Rushmi bt Assia Halo/Djamila Khaldi (Alg) 6-1, 6-3; Quarterfinals: Sai/Rushmi bt Sihem Benyoucef (Alg)/Zora Mark (Sui) 6-1, 6-0; First round: bye.