Chinese Teenage Gao Claims First US$25,000
Gao Xinyu of China came from behind to stun top seed Shiho Akita of Japan to win the first leg of US$25,000 Singha Cal-Camp & XYZ Printing ITF Women’s Circuit at True Arena Hua Hin on Saturday.
The 18-year-old from Beijing fought off a match point in the ninth game of the third set to beat the 301st ranked opponent 6-2 1-6 7-5 in a nail-biting final that consumed two hours and 29 minutes.
Gao faced four break points in the third game but put up a gutsy fight to save them all and finally held to lead 2-1 after Akita overhit a forehand long. Akita sprayed a backhand long before burying a forehand to the net to drop the following game as the Chinese extended the lead to 3-1.
At 4-2, the Chinese teenager again faced a break point but she used her fierce forehand to escape from the threat to establish a 5-2 lead. Gao went on to exert pressure on the top seed by attacking at both wings. She finally took the first set 6-2 in 53 minutes. Thanks to two successive backhand errors from the Japanese.
In the first game of the second set Gao committed a double fault, followed by a forehand wide which saw her lose the service game for the first time on the day. Errors started creeping out of the Chinese racquet as she quickly fell 1-5 in just 22 minutes. She then served a double fault to face a set point at 30-40 in the next game before the Japanese punished her with a powerful service return to take the set 6-1 in just 27 minutes and leveled at one set all.
After the toilet break before the start of the decisive set, Gao was overwhelmed with unforced errors and fell behind at 1-4 and 2-4. But Akita served back-to-back double faults to lose the next game, allowing Gao to get back on serves at 3-4.
Akita broke again to serve for the title at 5-3 but the Chinese teenager did not give up, launching a series of raids to break for a love game to reduce the gap to 4-5. The Japanese had a championship point in the next game but the gutsy Gao fought bravely to stave it off with a smash. The momentum switched to the Chinese from then on as she broke the next game to surge up for the first time at 6-5 after Akita double faulted.
At 30-30 in the 12 th game, Akita hit two shots to the net to lose the match as the Chinese screamed in jubilant when the last point was over.
