Ankita wins doubles, also enter singles final in New Delhi ITF

India`s Ankita Raina won the doubles title and also reached the singles final in New Delhi ITF at the DLTA complex .

New Delhi: India`s Ankita Raina won the doubles title and also reached the singles summit clash to set herself up for a double crown in the USD 10,000 ITF women`s tennis tournament at the DLTA complex on friday.

The 19-year-old Ankita defeated another Pune girl and senior national champion Rutuja Bhonsale 7-5 6-4 in the singles semifinal before teaming up with Aishwarya Agarwal to claim the doubles crown. The combination of Ankita and Aishwarya defeated Ester Masuri of Israel and Naomi Totka of Hungary 6-1 6-4 to lift the doubles title. Incidentally this is Ankita`s third doubles titles here. "I won the earlier two doubles titles with Rushmi (Chakravarty). But this time I was playing with a new partner and I am happy that I still managed to come up with the same result," said Ankita. Speaking about her good run in the singles as well, Ankita said the credit should go to her coach and mental trainer Debashree Marathe, who helped her regain confidence after a dismal 2011. "I was very low on confidence at the start of the year and had long sessions with the mental trainer, who first suggested that I focus on winning doubles and results will start coming in singles," she added. Ankita, who thrashed top seed Anja Prislan of Slovenia in the quarter-finals, was slow get off the block and lost her serve in the second game but restored parity in the very next game. Both the players traded a couple of breaks more before Ankita pocketed the first set by breaking Rutuja in the 11th game and then serving well to hold thereafter. The second set followed a similar script but Ankita once again came up triumphant to set up a final clash against compatriot Prerna Bhambri. PTI