India will have its first Asian junior women's champion on Saturday when Sania Mirza and Ankita Bhambri fight it out in the final of the GAIL Asian junior tennis championships at the DLTA Courts, in Delhi.
No Indian woman has won the Asian junior title in the tournament's 35-year history. This time, however, it will be an all-India final between the country's most promising youngsters.
In the semi-finals on Friday, second seeded Sania defeated Yung Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 6-2 while Ankita overcame Kartiki Bhat 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-1 in another thrilling encounter.
Tai-Wei Liu of Chinese Taipei will take on Hyun-Joon Suk of Korea in the men's final.
Liu defeated Hong Kong's Hiu Tung Yu 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 in a stop-start match while Suk upset top seed Wang Cheng Hsieh of Taipei 6-3, 6-3 in the semi-finals.
It was a poor show from the Indian men, with none of them proceeding beyond the quarterfinal stage, a contrast to last year's title-winning performance by Sunil Kumar Sipaeya.
Sania seemed to be fighting her own self rather than her opponent. She had suffered a pull to the left knee ligament which troubled her right through the match. But the way she fought off the pain and her own not-so-good form was remarkable.
Chan, the fourth seed, on the other hand, lacked experience. The 13-year old Taipei girl conceded her opponent
played better on the day but that only reflected the young girl's humility.
Chan is of that rare breed who likes to take the ball early and go for attack with a positive frame of mind. She broke Sania twice in each set but the Indian's experience stood her in good stead.
In contrast, Sania gives herself enough time to play her shots. Time and again when Chan hit a forehand winner, Sania
would come up with her own for a telling answer.
Chan's weak serve, perhaps, made the difference as she was broken four times in both the sets.
Ankita might have been a wild card entrant but she went into the match against fourth seed Kartiki as the favourite.
Mental toughness, more than physical fitness, was Ankita's strong point and that came to the fore when the match moved into the deciding set.
In fact, on a day when she was not serving well and was broken thrice in the first two sets, Ankita came into her own in
only the third set. But in a match that lasted two hours and 15 minutes, those last 30 minutes proved to be crucial.