India’s top female singles player Ankita Raina on Sunday won her first singles title of the season and the 10th ITF singles title of her career when she overwhelmed French tennis player Chloe Paquet in the final of the USD 25,000 prize tournament in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
The Indian, who was seeded third, outsmarted the fourth-seeded French 6-3, 7-5 in straight sets. This is Ankita’s first win against Chloe. Earlier, the Indian player had to face defeat in the previous two encounters with the French tennis player.
The singles victory was double delight for Ankita as she had earlier won the doubles title together with Dutch tennis partner Bibiane Schoofs. The Indo-Dutch pair of Ankita and Bibiane had overcome Thai wild card entrants Supapitch Kuearum and Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4, 6-2 to lift the doubles title on Saturday.
After winning the singles crown the ace Indian tennis star told PTI, “It’s a positive start to the season. Actually the last year also ended on a winning note in Solapur singles and doubles both. I didn’t get much time for pre-season training but my coach was travelling for 3 weeks which helped me to train physically and tennis wise.”
Ankita enjoyed a good run at the championship as in the singles event the number 1 ranked Indian female player overcame Simona Walter of Switzerland in a tough three-set game, winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to advance into the semifinals of the competition.
In the semifinal, Ankita locked horns with another Swiss tennis player Leonie Kung. Ankita sent the Swiss packing in straight sets by winning 6-3 6-1 to book a summit clash with Chloe Paquet.
In the doubles event also Ankita had a good outing. The Indian along with her Dutch partner Bibiane Schoofs got better of the Uzbek-Romanian pair of Akgul Amanmuradova and Nicoleta Dascălu in the semifinal. The Indo-Dutch pair toppled Uzbek-Romanian pair in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.
