Mahak, Sacchitt win Road to Wimbledon titles
PUTTING UP A SOLID SHOW, India's Mahak Jain and Sacchitt Sharma emerged champions at the Road to Wimbledon event, winning the girls and boys titles respectively at the UK's national grass court championship.
Mahak, who went to London straight from ITF World Junior Tennis Final in Czech Republic, eked out a 6-4 6-4 win over second seed Esther Adeshina in the final.
"It feels amazing, I'm really happy. I made very few errors and was able to make her move a lot," said Mahak.
It was second time that Mahak played Adeshina whom she had beaten 7-5 6-1 in her opening round-robin match.
"Today was a much tougher contest, it was neck-to-neck and was very close. It is a very mental and physical game, but I'm mentally quite strong and managed to keep to my game plan. Winning at Wimbledon is by far my proudest moment and it inspires me to keep improving," she said.
Sacchitt Sharma doubled the joy for India by wining the boys title. He overcame the challenge of Derbyshire's Bradley Buckland 6-4 6-4.
"It feels incredible to win the tournament after all the hard work I've put into it. Especially at Wimbledon, to win is a great honour. The first set I played well but in the second I had no time to even consider what was happening. The coach told me to keep playing aggressive and I managed to keep the ball in play and had the confidence to go for my shots," he said.
"My coach, family and I have all worked so hard for this moment, I'm just so proud. We'll go party as both Jain and I won, it's great both of us from India won in the finals."
"I want to return to win the title here in the senior event. It's a long journey."
Last year India's Siddhant Banthia had become the singles champion after defeating top seed Maxime Trenakhin.
Siddhant and Adil Kalyanpur had also claimed the doubles title while Indian girls Aarja Chakraborty and Shivani Ingle had ended runners-up in the girls' doubles.
The agreement between the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Wimbledon Foundation for the 'Road to Wimbledon' programme runs till 2017.
