A young 14-year-old girl from Thailand stole the court at the end of first of two International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior tennis tournaments played at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) courts yesterday.

“I am overjoyed. I cannot put in to words the way I feel right now,” said an exuberant Veena Doungkeaw who was playing in her first ITF tournament. She beat top seed Aishwarya Agrawal of India 6-7 (tie break 2), 6-2, 6-2 in the girls Under 18 Final.

Speaking further to The Sunday Times following her epic triumph, Doungkeaw said: “When I came in to this tournament, I was just aiming to make it to the quarter finals. I never dreamt of winning. After entering the semi finals, I just decided I would try and do my best. Once in the final and knowing I was facing the top seed, I thought to myself that even losing would not matter as long I was at my best.

Thus losing the first set did not affect me. I just decided I would fight harder and it paid off. I am not letting myself get too carried away as I have another tournament coming up in just a couple of days.” Meanwhile in the all Indian boys singles final top seed Vaidik Munshaw saw off the challenge of Sai Karthik 6-1, 2-6, 6-0. Munshaw set the tone for the match in the first game by going one up with an ache. The second saw Karthik’s serve being broken and he squandered the golden opportunity of coming right back by squandering three break points in the third game. Munshaw coasted through the first set and then inexplicably let his guard down in the second. Kartik grabbed his opportunity to force the match in to the third and deciding set.

The first game in the decider swung to and fro before Munshaw broke through to go one up. After that it was business as usual with Munshaw dominating his opponent with ease. Munshaw took just over 25 minutes to dispatch his opponent and clinch the title.

Kartik’s biggest problem was his first serve percentage which was in the low 30’s as opposed to Munshaw who was averaging in the high 70’s. Kartik also made too many unforced errors with Munshaw serving only double fault and that too in the final set with the match almost in his bag. And only Kartik can answer why he kept throwing his racquet! Incidentally, Sri Lanka’s top seed Jithmie Jayawickrema will not be available for the second tournament which starts at the same venue on Monday. She flew to Pune last Friday for a Commonwealth tennis tournament.