Jia-Jing Lu bounces over Ayu-Fani Damayanti to lift title – Jakarta ITF 2012
In an epic final between top two seeds, Jia-Jing Lu hit back to outshine second seed Ayu-Fani Damayanti in a three-set thriller at the Sportama International Tennis Tournament 2012 on Sunday. She summed up a 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory against the local starlet
to grab the title at this ITF (International Tennis Federation) Women’s Circuit event taking place in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Seeded top in this event, Lu made a drastic entry at this outdoor hard court tournament taking place from 3rd to 9th December. However, she remained focused and ultimately carved out the victory in almost two and half hours. As a result,
Lu claimed her second ITF title this circuit.
The world number 491 made a strong entry at the Gelora Bung Karno Tennis Stadium. She unleashed barrage of winners and wiped out following five games before Lu could come on the score board. The Indonesian slid her serve once again and clicked the opener
with a breadstick. She was never challenged with any breakpoint and cashed two out of three break chances to move a step closer towards her goal.
Lu rebounded in the following set. She got the desiderated break in the opening game and took the initial lead. Regardless of losing her edge in the very next game, the Chinese capitalised on another break chance in the third game and got the upper hand
again. She then held her remaining serves with poise and eventually sealed the equaliser by winning six games to four. The Chinese dusted away two out of three breakpoints she came across and converted two out of four break opportunities to her advantage.
Ranked 316th in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Rankings, Lu maintained consistency in her game in the following set. She exchanged two serve breaks before levelling the scores in the tenth game. The Chinese then got the breakthrough
and consequently clinched the decider with a 7-5 score line. She failed to block both breakpoints she faced but availed three out of five break chances to earn the fame.
The 23-year-old recently captured her first career title at the Tarakan ITF event in May. She also secured quarter-final berths at the Goyang ITF and the Lagos ITF events.
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