Ankita wins first singles title of 2019 season in Singapore

Indian tennis player Ankita Raina on Sunday won her first singles title of the 2019 season and eighth overall after trampling top seed Arantxa Rus in straight sets in the final of the USD 25,000 event in Singapore.

Coming into the tournament after competing at the Australian Open Qualifiers, Ankita demolished world number 122 and the Dutch top seed 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes.

Ankita toppled four seeded players in the tournament starting with Dutch eighth seed Lesley Kerkhove in the second round.

The gritty 25-year-old followed that up with wins over second seed Uzbek Sabina Sharipova and third seed Conny Perrin from Switzerland.

The 50 points earned from the title triumph are likely to catapult Ankita to a career-high singles rank of 168 when the new WTA list is issued on Monday.

"I've been working on my serve for a long while now and I think it's starting to help. I also feel there's more power in the strokes. It definitely helped playing the Grand Slam as the first ...