NEW DELHI: Karman Kaur Thandi capped her fine run with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Hsiang-Wen Huang of Chinese Taipei in the girls’ under-16 final of the WTA Future Stars tennis event at the Singapore Indoor Arena on Monday.
“It was very nice playing on this court. It was a good experience,” said Karman, after playing the final on the court that will feature all the top singles and doubles players of the world in the $6.5 million WTA Finals. The trophy was presented by Li Na of China.
Karman bounced back from a slow start when she trailed 2-4 to outplay the Taipei girl, whom she had beaten in the last league match. Incidentally, Karman did not drop a set in the whole tournament; five matches in the league phase and two in the knock-out stage.
Coach Rushmi Chakravarthi was happy with the way Karman handled the match after dropping her serve early. Karman broke her opponent’s serve four times thereafter and held her own serve with ease.
“Karman took a few games to get into rhythm. She was pretty much in control of the match afterwards,” said Rushmi.
The coach felt that Karman had a good game and a great attitude which could shape her into a high quality player in the future.
Karman, a trainee of coach Aditya Sachdeva at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, had captured the attention of everyone by making the women’s final, winning the women’s doubles and under-18 girls singles titles in the recent National championship at home in Delhi.
In the ITF women’s tournaments in the Capital earlier this season, Karman had made the semifinals in two back to back events, and had lost to the eventual champions Kim Dabin of Korea and Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand.
She has a modest rank of 157 among the under-18 juniors in the world, and 1038 among the women.
“Karman is hard working, sincere and learns quickly. The next few years are important for her,” said Rushmi.
The result: Finals: Under-16: Karman Kaur Thandi bt Hsiang-Wen Huang (Tpe) 6-4, 6-2.
