Tamara Curovic of Serbia overcame bouts of nervousness to beat top seed Vaidehi Chaudhari 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Sunday.
After playing well and capitalising on the errors of her opponent, Vaidehi allowed her game to dip in the second set and lacked the conviction in her own ability.
The 28-year-old Curovic who has won four singles titles at this level, was indeed the better player, but tended to be caught in her own web of indecisive play.
Unable to serve out the match at 5-1 after having raced away with 11 of 14 games on losing the first set, the tall and strong Curovic missed three match points on her serve. She even tried under-arm serve to close things out.
However, after Vaidehi had made a strong attempt to revive her fortunes by holding serve in the eighth game, with a delightful backhand down-the-line winner, Curovic was back at her best.
Vaidehi tended to spray the shots and that brought the curtains down on her challenge.
The defeat apart, it has been a commendable effort by Vaidehi to have made her second final in recent weeks. She had won her maiden singles and doubles titles in Gwalior by the end of last season.
Curovic, who has won 34 doubles titles in the professional circuit, does enjoy playing on clay, but lacked a high degree of concentration and faith in her big game. She did tease Vaidehi right through the match with a dozen drop shots, all delectably executed with a touch of finesse.
She did show her serve prowess with a few aces in the first set to get back on par, but tended to be erratic which saw her drop the first set without much fight.
With two more tournaments lined up over the next fortnight, including one at the same venue, the players will get the chance to sharpen their game further and step up the quality of their performance.
The results: Singles (final): Tamara Curovic (Srb) bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.