NECC DECCAN ITF Women’s Tournament: 4th Seed Diana Marcinkevica to Face Unseeded Moyuka Uchijima in Final
It will be a clash between Europe and Asia as fourth-seeded Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia will take on unseeded giant-killer Moyuka Uchijima of Japan in the women’s singles finals of the 20th edition of the NECC Deccan ITF $25000 Women’s Tennis Tournament organised under the auspices of the ITF, AITA and MSLTA by Deccan Gymkhana and sponsored by National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) being played at the Deccan Gymkhana Tennis Courts.
In the semifinals, former world-ranked 196th player and member of the Latvian Fed Cup Team, 29-year-old Diana Marcinkevica came back from 1-3 in the third set to wriggle past a fighting 20-year-old Russian Ekaterina Reyngold 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2) in a 2-hour and 28-minute thriller and make it to her first final of the year. Marcinkevica, a regular to the Indian events, displayed grit and quality tennis to down her young Russian Opponent.
“I’m so happy to play in Pune, I love the courts, the Club. My last title was in 2018 and I will go all out to take this big one, I’m so happy,” Marcinkevica said.
In the finals she will take on 20-year-old upcoming Japanese Moyuka Uchijima who continued her upset spree knocking out fifth-seeded Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour 28 minutes, Moyuka came back from being 0-3 down in the second set to reel off six games in a row. Member of the 7 member Japanese Tennis Federation Team Moyuka will be contesting her first ever 25k Event finals. ” We lost much of the year to Covid and couldn’t travel much but we are happy to come to India, we have come as a team with two coaches and we are making most of the tournament,” said Moyuka.
“I will be happy to make it three in a row of Japanese players winning in Pune, our Junior Sara Saito won the two ITF juniors here and I will be happy to win the women’s ITF tournament here and the first career USD25000 event at Deccan Gymkhana”, she said
Top-seeded Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Valeriya Strakhovaof Ukraine overcame 2 set points to stave off the challenge of the lone Indian in fray Rutuja Bhosale and her Japanese partner Hiroko Kuwata winning 3-6, 6-2, [11-9] in a thriller . Rutuja and Kuwata let 7-4 , and 9-7 in the super tiebreaker before the top seeds got back
The top seeds will take on unseeded Japanese pair of Funa Kozaki and Misaki Matsuda who outsmarted second seeds Zhibek Kulambayeva of Kazakhstan and Ekaterina Yashina of Russia 6-4,
6-4 in the other semifinals
The finals of both the singles and the doubles will be played 10.30 am onwards.
Following are the results: Main Draw:
Women’s Singles: Semifinal Round:
Diana Marcinkevica (LAT) [4] bt Ekaterina Reyngold (RUS) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2);
Moyuka Uchijima (JPN) bt Nigina Abduraimova (UZB) [5] 6-2, 6-3;
Doubles: Semifinal Round:
Anna Danilina (KAZ)/Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) [1] bt Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/Hiroko Kuwata (JPN) [4] 3-6, 6-2, [11-9]; Funa Kozaki (JPN)/Misaki Matsuda (JPN) bt Zhibek Kulambayeva (KAZ) [2]/Ekaterina Yashina (RUS) 6-4, 6-4.
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