Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 26 (IANS) Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski Friday took out top seed Masa Zec-Peskiric in a gruelling three-setter to enter the final of the $50,000 women’s ITF at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Stadium (DLTA) courts here.In the other semi-final, third-seeded Czech Sandra Zahlavova overcame a tough resistance from American Megan Moulton-Levy to beat her 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 and set up a title clash with Bojana Saturday.

The 16-year-old Serb with her ground strokes and better court movement unsettled an erring Masa to beat her 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in a match that saw frequent drop of serves from both players.

It was an ominious start for Bojana who faced a break of serve in the very first game of the first set. But the teenager soon evened the scores in the next game. However, Masa again snapped her serve in the third to sneak ahead for a 3-1 lead. But Bojana struck back with a break in the sixth game to make it 3-3.

Both players committed far too many errors to exchange breaks in the successive games before Bojana took the first set by breaking Masa’s serve in the tenth.

The second set began like the first, with both Bojana and Masa dropping serves in the first two games. But a clever Masa served well and brought variations in the pace of her shots. She also began keeping the ball a little high to take the pace off Bojana’s strokes and forced her into errors.

Masa’s tactics paid off as she broke Bojana in the fifth and the ninth game to make it a set-all.

The decider saw a much sharper game from Bojana, who after being broken in the first game went on to win six in a row to seal the match in two hours.

In the doubles, second-seeded pair of Chinese Taipei’s I- Hsuan Hwang and Hong Kong’s Ling Zhang beat Britain’s Emily Webley-Smith and Megan 6-3,7-6(4) to clinch the doubles title.