Second-seeded Uzbekistan star Akgul Amanamuradova won her second tournament in a row when she outplayed sixth seed Megha Vakharia in the final of the US$ 10,000 NECC-ITF Women's Tennis Tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana courts at Pune.
Amanmuradova put out a fighting Wakharia 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 38 minutes to lift the top prize and six WTA points besides raising her prize money from the two successful titles in Mumbai and Pune to US$ 4,600 and earning a total of 12 points which may help her ranking to go into the top 300.
The diminutive 17-year-old Megha, started on a negative note with a double fault. She, however, pulled up her socks by hitting some good forehand returns down both the flanks to race to a 4-1 lead.
The powerful serving Akgul came back to hold her serve in the sixth and eighth games and break Megha's serve in the seventh game to level the score at 4-4.
Akgul again broke Megha in the 11th game and held her serve in the 12th to win the first set.
The second set followed the same pattern with Megha racing to a 3-0 lead. Two good breaks in the fifth and seventh game saw the tall Uzbek take lead for the first time at 4-3. Akgul held on to her serve in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead.
In the ninth game both players matched each other stroke for stroke but some clever change of speed in the rallies saw Megha holding on to her service to narrow down the score to 5-4.
In the tenth game the powerful Uzbek serve was no match for Megha as she hit two aces to win the match and with it the title.
In the post match conference Agkul attributed her steep rise in WTA rankings from the middle of this year to her coach Shamil Chebotarev and the support extended to her by the tennis federation of Uzbekistan.
Megha, who played the fifth finals of the year, had to be content with four WTA points and US$ 1000.
Pune Mayor Deepti Choudhari, who was the chief guest at the function, assured full support to the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association for setting up a tennis centre in Pune.
The results of women's singles final: Akgul Amanmuradov (Uzb) beat Megha Vakharia (Ind) 7-5, 6-3.
