Riya Bhatia beats Nastja Kolar to win ITF title in Nigeria
Indian tennis player Riya Bhatia beat Nastja Kolar of Slovenia 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in the final of the $25,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) women’s tournament in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday. Riya took her record against Kolar to 2-1 after she had lost to the Slovenian on grass last November.
Indian tennis player Riya Bhatia beat Nastja Kolar of Slovenia 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in the final of the $25,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) women’s tournament in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday. 22-year-old Riya put up a dominant performance in the summit clash except for losing her way in the second set. Currently ranked 516, Riya, defeated the Slovenian, who had reached a career-best rank of 178 in singles and 140 in doubles, in a match where both the competitors won an identical 86 points each.
Riya could not find her hand in service as she committed nine double faults in the first set but still managed to bag the set 7-5. After losing the second set by a huge margin, Riya found herself leading 5-2 in the decider, before closing it out in style with her only ace of the final, on match point. Riya had a 100 percent breakpoint conversion by winning all the four that she forced and saved 12 of 16 breakpoints that she faced.
It may be recalled that Riya had earlier won the semifinal against her national counterpart Rutuja Bhosale 4-6, 7-6 [7-5], 7-5 by saving four match points after being down 2-5 in the decider. Rain forced the final to be postponed to Monday.
Riya took her record against Kolar to 2-1 after she had lost rather tamely to the Slovenian on grass in Muzaffar Nagar last November. This was Riya’s third singles title in the professional circuit following her last two titles in 2016 and 2017. The former national grass court and hard court champion has also won three doubles titles in the international circuit with all her professional titles being won abroad.