Pranjala Yadlapalli took the title home at the $15,000 ITF women’s tournament in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt upsetting Italian top-seed Giada Clerici in Sunday’s final. The eighteen-year-old posted a tough fight, clinching a three-set, 6-7(0), 7-5, 6-4 win in two hours and 48 minutes.

Earlier, in the opening set it was the Indian who held the momentum in the match as she built a 4-1 lead. However, the Italian broke back to level the match at four-all. A third break of Clerici’s serve gave Yadlapalli a chance to serve for the first set in the 12th game, but once again the Italian wrested back the advantage from her opponent. There were no further answers from the Indian teenager in the tie-break that followed, which Clerici won commandingly without dropping a single point – 7-0.

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The second set looked to be heading the same way as the first, only this time it was Yadlapalli who capitalised on a handy set point – on Clerici’s serve in the 12th game of the set – to keep herself in the match. In the final set, Clerici gained an early break. However, par for the course of the match all along, not only was she not able to hold on to her lead for long, she also squandered her serve to give Yadlapalli her maiden singles title in the ITF Pro Circuit.

Doubles glory for Kanika Vaidya

India had a champion in the women’s doubles as well in the tournament. The top-seeded Indo-Russian team of Kanika Vaidya and Ekaterina Yashina claimed the title against Australia’s Ella Husrefovic and Ireland’s Jennifer Timotin on Saturday.

Vaidya and Yashina lost just two games in their 46-minute match, winning emphatically 6-2, 6-0. They converted five of the nine break points they had on Husrefovic and Timotin’s serve and saved all three break points they faced on their serve. They finished the match with a total of 51 points to their opponents’ 24.