India’s highest ranked junior girl’s player, Zeel Desai won her maiden title in the ITF Women’s Circuit, at the ITF $15k tournament in Gwalior, on Sunday. Desai defeated compatriot, and fellow top-ranked junior, Mahak Jain in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.
Desai won her opening two rounds in three-setters against Indians Eetee Maheta and Ramya Natarajan in the first and second rounds respectively. She then progressed through to the final, with straights set wins over another Indian and junior player Riya Bhatia in the quarter-final, and Switzerland’s Lulu Radovic in the semi-final.
The win marks yet another achievement in the youngster’s consistently growing pile of milestones notches.
Prior to this win, the 18-year-old, who has been playing in the Pro Tour – in the ITF Women’s Circuit – since 2015, had recently finished as the quarter-finalist at the Australian Open this year in January. In doing so, she became the first Indian junior girl’s player to make it that far in the junior Grand Slams.
Earlier, in 2016, Desai had won her 11th ITF Juniors title at the Grade 2 ITF tournament in Hong Kong, surpassing Sania Mirza’s record of 10 ITF Juniors titles.