Maiden title for Vekic in women's tennis championship

Bangalore, March 24 (IANS) Ninth seed Donna Vekic, the 15-year-old from Croatia, ranked 397, won the $25,000 QNet ITF Open women's tennis tournament beating fourth seed Andrea Koch Benvenuto of Chile 6-2, 6-4 in the final here Saturday.

It was Vekic's maiden victory in a $25,000 event and earlier last season, she was finalist in the similar event in Nigeria. The Croatian girl also had won a $10,000 tournament last season.

The victory here was special for Vekic as she had scalped top seed Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium in the quarterfinals and then local favourite Kyra Shroff in the next round.

The 115-minute final, though not of high quality, was quite absorbing as Vekic converted most of the chances that came her way. She volleyed and returned while varying her pace to take the sting out of Benvenuto's solid ground strokes.

The Chilean baseliner, ranked 297, committed far too many unforced errors especially when she moved to the net. Vekic, took a 4-2 led in the first set breaking her rival in the sixth game and then again in the eighth which saw as many as six deuces while the Croatian took the set.

In the second set, the Chilean came up with a much better display, but her serve was always under pressure. Though she survived a break point in the first game, Vekic broke her in the 10th after games went to serve till 4-all.

"I won't say, it was easy and I never think any match is easy. I played to win and I am happy that I won here," said Vekic who won $2,940 in prize and earned 50 points while Andrea was richer by $1666 and collected 34 points.