Hosts Andhra Pradesh brought cheer to the home crowd by claiming the women's tennis team gold medal with a fluent 2-0 victory over Karnataka at the 32nd National Games in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
The final, played amidst a carnival-like atmosphere at the SAAP tennis complex, saw Andhra gain a 1-0 lead when teenage sensation Sania Mirza defeated a tired-looking Archana Venkatraman 6-4, 6-2.
However, reigning national grasscourt champion Manisha Malhotra had to counter a stiff challenge from Karnataka's Sheetal Goutham before registering a 6-1, 6-7 (10/12), 7-5 victory to fashion Andhra's golden triumph.
Mirza, who became the first Indian to win the Asian junior tennis title last week, played an aggressive brand of tennis, firing in aces and powerful winners to outplay her more experienced opponent in only 66 minutes.
The Andhra girl began with a bang, demolishing Venkatraman's serve in the very second game and then followed it up with another service break in the sixth to open up a massive 5-1 lead in the opening set.
But at that point, Sania's serve suddenly seemed to have deserted her as she double-faulted and made a series of unforced errors to drop serve in both the seventh and ninth games as the Karnataka player reduced the gap to 4-5.
However, the youngster soon regained her touch to break Venkatraman in the next game and wrap up the first set at 6-4.
Mirza continued her sparkling display in the second set, racing ahead 4-0,
Manisha, roped in by Andhra for the Games, breezed past her opponent in the opening set as she repeatedly charged at the net. She again demolished Sheetal's serve in the third game of the second set to raise visions of an another one-sided match. But Sheetal staged a spectacular comeback, winning four games on the trot to lead 5-2. However, the seasoned Malhotra broke back in the eighth game as the set rolled on to the tie-breaker.
Both players looked a bundle of nerves in the tie-breaker as they double-faulted at crucial junctures before Sheetal took the tie-break to level the issue.
The decider was a cliff-hanger as the pendulum swung from one end to the other. Manisha, broken in the first game, demolished her opponent's serve in the very next but then
lost her serve in the fifth and seventh to trail 2-5.
But Manisha kept her composure and broke Sheetal in the eighth and 10th games to level the set score 5-5. She held serve in the 11th game before finally taking the set 7-5, when the Karnataka player netted a backhand, bringing to an end the 153-minute battle.
