Giraud lifts title

Thiruvananthapuram, May 19 (UNI) Seventh seed Giraud Marinne of Mauritius won the 25,000 dollar Kerala Open International Women's Tennis tournament outclassing top seed Szatmari Agnes of Romania in the finals today.

In a 95-minute-long battle, the 21-year-old Mauritian shattered the hopes of her Romanian rival handing out a 7-5, 6-3 defeat.

''I cant believe I have won the title, because I did not have much expectation.

''I am really happy, because this is the first ever big win in my tennis career, though I have won 10,000 dollar tournaments at South Africa and Dubai,'' an overjoyed Giraud remarked.

The Mauritian girl said ''victories over second seed Albanese Lauren (United states) in the semis and Wickmarer Yania (Belgium) in the quarters boosted my confidence to take my top seeded rival in a cool way and that helped me beat her,'' she said.

Though the 20-year-old Romanian started the proceedings in fashion and even led 4-2 in the first set, the determined Giraud with her well-worked ground shots and neat placements brought the score level at 4-4 and wrapped up the set at 7-5.

On the other hand, the Romanian girl lost rhythm awarding points to her rival.

The first set win boosted confidence of Giraud and she dominated the second set throughout. She scored points, capitalising on the faults of her mighty rival and led 5-2 at one stage.

However, the Romanian girl tried to stage a come back and scored a point.

But the next game found her committing mistakes regularly and even failed to covert open chances as her returns did not find the target. Her rival ran away with the set point and the title at 6-3 in 45 minutes.

''I am too tired and my opponent played well. My ground shots did not work properly,'' said the disappointed Szatmari.

UNI