India won its maiden Asian juniors girls' tennis crown on Saturday when second seed Sania Mirza overpowered unseeded Ankita Bhambri in the final of the GAIL Asian junior under-14 tennis championships in Delhi.
Sania's lethal forehand proved to much for the 16-year-old Bhambri in an all-India final as she won 6-3, 7-5.
Sania began with a flourish and broke Bhambri in the third game to go up 2-1. Another break in the sixth game saw her increase the gap to 4-2 before proceeding to win the set 6-3.
In the second set, Bhambari, who entered the main draw with a wild card, came back strongly after being down 1-4 with a break in the sixth game. She unleashed a series of deft placements and smooth baseline rallies to unsettle Sania's rhythm.
Bhambri, who had beaten top seed Isha Lakhani in the quarter-finals and had overcome spirited 15-year-old Pune girl Kartiki Bhat in a marathon three-set semi-final on Friday, then took the next two games, breaking Sania's serve again in the eighth and holding to go up 5-4.
But the Hyderabad girl showed her experience and maturity with some good serving to break back immediately and then hold serve to take the second set and match at 7-5.
In the final of the boys' section, second seed Fai-Wai Liu of Chinese Taipei easily beat unheralded Korea's Hyun-Joon Suk 6-2, 6-3 to win the title.
Suk, who had stunned top seed Wang-Cheng Hseigh of Chinese Taipei on Friday, made too many unforced errors. He whittled the advantage of his strong baseline play with errors, which a solid and consistent Liu capitalised upon.
