Tulpule wins ITF tourney

Maharashtra's Radhika Tulpule won her maiden international title, beating Ipok Senoglu of Turkey 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) in the singles final of the Indianoil Servo ITF women's tennis championship in Madras on Saturday.

Earlier, the top seeded pair of Sai Jayalakshmi and Rushmi Chakravarty defeated Subha Srinivasan and Samrita Sekar 6-0, 7-6 (7/2) to clinch the doubles title.

Tulpule displayed solidity in her ground strokes against a better rated Senoglu, and had no difficulty in taking the first set. But she looked like wilting under pressure, as her rival picked up momentum mid-way through the second set.

Tulpule was well in command as she established leads of 4-2 and 5-3 before Senoglu, like in her earlier matches, fought back and sent down winners on both the flanks to draw abreast and forge ahead at 6-5. However, Tulpule played some superb backhand strokes and kept her cool to wrest the 12th game and take the set to the tie-break.

Tulpule then tightened her game and also came to the net to score winners. Besides, a few unforced errors by Senoglu helped her to wrap up the game and match.

While Tulpule received $1600, the doubles pair won $650.