India’s Mahak Jain defeated Burundi’s Sada Nahimana 6-1, 6-4 to win the first leg of the ITF World Tennis Tour at Peponi School, Ruiru yesterday.
The 18-year-old Jain ended the event without dropping any set in all her five matches. “Winning this means a lot to me because it’s a good stepping stone for me as I seek to get to the next level,” Jain said.
“Playing five matches and not dropping any set is quite a good achievement and I am glad that I have been able to achieve that against good players like my opponent today (Nahimana). It’s a big moment for me,” she noted.
Jain qualified for the finals after beating Netherlands’ Alexie Stevens 6-1, 6-4 while Nahimana beat Tamara Barad from Israel 6-3, 7-5 to make the final cut.
In the final, Jain started well by taking a 4-0 lead with an early break in the first set and made Nahimana play catch up throughout the match.
After falling 4-1 in the first set, Nahimana tried to salvage something out it in the sixth game by dropping the ball more often but the Indian, who played more of a mind game over the Burundian by even asking her to collect the ball for her, capitalised on her weakness to bag the game.
The story was the same in-game six which saw the two exchange leads. The second set saw Nahimana take the lead thrice 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 before the Indian bounced back to seal the set in 47 minutes.
“ It was a good match and one that I would like to play,” Nahimana said. “At one point, even just getting a point off her was a great achievement.”
On her way to the final, Nahimana had beaten Kenya top seed Angela Okutoyi 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 in the second round.
Nahimana is impressed with the level of the competition and can’t wait for the second leg which serves off tomorrow with a number of new players expected to register.
“A tournament like this always gives you a lot of confidence, so I’ll be in a good mood going into the second leg,” Nahimana said.
“But the special thing about tennis is that I’ll start from zero next week. All the guys will be really strong, so I’ll need to be ready from the first point.
