NECC ITF 2008 Day 5

Europe's South to take on Asia's Lu in finals of $25,000 NECC-ITF
Women's Tennis
Chang-Hwang Lift doubles title

Pune, November 14: Top seeded Melanie South will take on eighth seeded Jing Jing Lu of China in the finals of the $25,000 NECC- ITF women's tennis Championships sponsored by the National Egg Coordination committee (NECC) being organized by the Deccan Gymkhana
and being played on their courts here. In the semifinals played today the strongly built world ranked 116th British put out fourth seeded Ksenia Plakina of Krgystan 6-4, 6-4 in 1
hr 13 mins , while the 245th ranked Chinese Lu Jing Jing stopped the winning run of Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovanovski 7-5,6-3 in a 1 hr 27 minute battle .

The second seeded Chinese Taipei pair of Kai-Chen Chang / I Hsuan Hwang scraped past the pair of Romanian Elora Dabija and Serbian Bojana Jovanovski 5-7, 6-2, 10-7 to lift the doubles crown.

The strongly built British player South who expects to be in the top 100 in the world by the year end dominated the game from the start and broke Palkina in the 4th game in the first set and then served well to take the set 6-4

In the second set such was South's domination that she broke Palkina in the 2nd game, she also won the 1st and 3rd games on love to race to a 3-0 lead. Palkina tried to claw her way back into the match but South didn't give her many opportunities.

South who lost her serve in the 9th game to give Plakina a ray of hope of leveling the game scores , but in the 10th two brilliant forehand down the line winners saw South break Palkina immediately in the 10th game and wrap up the match."I didn't play my game today , said a
dejected Palkina , who won two $25,000 events this year.

The Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovaovaski who impressed a huge turnout over the week was stopped by eighth seeded Jing Jing Lu of China. Jing Lu who timed the ball fluently through the week broke Bojana in the 12th game of the first set to take the set 7-5 in a 40 minute tussle.

In the second set Lu got a decisive break against Bojana in the 6th game to win the set 6-3 and make it to the third $25,000 event final.

In a well contested doubles event second seeded Chinese Taipei pair of Kai-Chen Chang / I Hsuan Hwang scraped past the pair of Romanian Elora Dabija and Serbian Bojana Jovanovski 5-7,6-2,10-7 for the crown, the winner got 25WTA points and $1176 for their efforts, while the
runners-up got 19 WTA points and $686 for their efforts.

The tournament director Anand Tulpule and Organizing Secretary Nitin Joshi gave away the prizes

Following are the results.

(Semi finals)

S.1 Melanie South (Gbr) bt S.4. Ksenia Palkina (Kgz) 6-4,6-4
S.8 Jing Jing Lu (Chn) bt Bojana Jovanosvski (Srb) 7-5,6-3

Doubles (Finals)

Kai-Chen Chang/ I Hsuan Hwang (Tpe) bt Elora Dabija(Rou) /Bojana Jovanovski (Srb)
5-7,6-2,10-7

For more pictures from day 5 click on this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/24086292@N05/sets/72157609105791950/

Mukund Joshi