It was sweet revenge for the loss in the final of the Busan Asian Games as second seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand outplayed Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan to win the WTA Indian Open in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Tamarine, who won 6-4, 6-4, received US $22,000 for her 123-minute victory.
It was a replay of the Asian Games final but with a reversal of roles. The Thai made her intentions very clear from the first game which she took with a degree of comfort.
The second seeded, showing remarkable resilience and tenacity, rallied from a 2-4 deficit in the first set and never looked back thereafter.
''It was a tough final; in fact, she played better shots than me,'' a jubilant Tanasugarn said after her win. ''But she (Tulyaganova) was trying to be more aggressive and tried to hit hard and made mistakes in the process,'' she added.
There was, however, some consolation for Tulyaganova as she combined with Elena Likhovtseva of Russia to down Evengla Koulikovskaya (Rus) and Tatiana Poutchek (Blr) 6-4, 6-4 to win the doubles crown and a purse of 6,500 dollars.