Hyderabad's Vineetha bags maiden ITF title in Nairobi

Hyderabad: Eighth seed Mummadi Vineetha of India bagged her maiden ITF title when she rallied to defeat Mave Osterreicher of Austria 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the girl’s singles final of Under-18 Nairobi Junior Open Grade 5 tennis tournament in Nairobi on Saturday.

The Hyderabad girl thus avenged her loss to the Austrian when she went to down to the same player in the previous tournament. The 15-year-old , a student of Jubliee Hills Public School, began on a shaky note when she trailed 0-3 in the first set before losing at 3-6.

In the second set, a confident Vineetha



got into a groove and straightaway dominated the second set. She went into a big 5-0 lead as she broke Osterreicher twice to level the match at one-all.

The crucial third set saw both the players holding their serves till two-all. Vineetha took control of the match when she broke Osterreicher in the fifth and seventh games. Although the Austrian held her serve, a cool Vineetha closed the match in the end.

Vineetha’s next big tournament is the National under-18 tournament in Chennai followed by two Grade IV ITF tournaments in Chennai and Hyderabad.