After a week of exhilarating tennis, Sania Mirza was crowned champion in her home city Hyderabad on Saturday.
With the crowds threatening to bring down the stadium, and much drama in the eighth game of the third and deciding set, the Indian ace beat Ukraine's Alyona Bondarenko 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the final of the Hyderabad Open and picked her first WTA crown.
Earlier, Olympic gold medallists Ting Li and Tian Tian Sun of China were beaten 4-6, 1-6 in the doubles final by compatriots Zi Yan and Jie Zheng.
The triumph will give the 18-year-old Indian wildcard, who created history by becoming the first Indian woman the enter the third round of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open last month, 32 points, which when added to the 85 points she had already picked from the event should see her ranking go close to the 100-mark.
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The making of Sania Mirza
The match though did not begin well for Mirza. She gifted her first service game after three double-faults to hand Bondarenko a 2-0 lead.
But the Ukraine lass faltered in the next game, after leading 40-0. A double-fault was followed by two forehand errors and Mirza seized the momentum to break back. She then won four games on the trot to establish a 4-2 lead.
A strong service game in the eighth enabled Mirza to assume command at 5-3. Bondarenko survived four set points in the ninth as Mirza served for the set.
In her last two matches, the Indian had squandered the lead and let the set drift into a tie-break. The same looked like happening as Mirza wasted as many as nine set points and then had to save three break points on her serve in the 10th game before wrapping up the set.
In the second set, Bondarenko gave away the first game after a double-fault, but won a love game off the Indian's serve for the first time in the match in the very next.
The 20-year-old started attacking the net a lot more as Mirza tried too hard and committed several unforced errors in the process.
Mirza dropped serve again in the sixth game and was soon down 2-5.
But as fortunes fluctuated, the Indian regained control and took the next three games, saving five set points in the process, as she broke to level the Ukrainian and then held serve to level the score at 5-5.
But after Bondarenko held, Mirza wasted three game points in the 12th game and lost the set.
A set apiece, the stage was set for a battle royal in the decider. Mirza was back at her sizzling best. Though the players traded a break each in the first two games of the set, Mirza came up with a determined effort and built up a 5-1 lead.
She started the seventh game with a return winner. The crowd got restless, waiting for the celebrations to begin. But umpire John Blom spoilt what would have been their moment of triumph twice when he called two serves, which the crowd thought were clean aces, bad. The Indian double-faulted on the next serve and a forehand error saw her concede the game.
But that was just a brief reprieve for Bondarenko. The Indian ace put in all she had and went for the kill in the ninth game. And when a forehand return from the Ukraine lass sailed long the home girl threw her hands up in celebration at becoming the first Indian to win a WTA title.
