Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza entered the singles final in the US$ 10,000 women's professional ITF tournament, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Saturday.
In the semi-finals, the 16-year-old defeated 21-year-old compatriot Shruthi Dhawan 7-5, 5-7, 6-1.
Mirza took an early 5-2 lead in the first set with her customary attacking brand of tennis but Shruti fought back gamely to level scores.
The Hyderabad girl, however, held serve and then broke to pocket the set.
The second set was equally well-contested with both girls going for big ground strokes until a couple of unforced errors by Sania in the 12th game, enabled Shruti even scores.
Sania was a different customer altogether in the final set when it mattered most as she raised the level of her game a few notches and played some scintillating forehand and backhand winners to race away to 5-0 lead.
Shruti narrowed the lead but could not suppress the inevitable as Sania ran away with a 6-1 victory in the third.
In the other semi-final, another seasoned Indian, Rushmi Chakravarthy had an easier time while beating Thassha Vittayaviorj of Thailand 6-2, 6-3 to set up a title clash with Sania.
This is top seed Sania's sixth professional final, out of which she emerged victorious on all previous occasions.
