Kyra goes down to Yang in ITF juniors

NEW DELHI - Indian wildcard Kyra Shroff was outclassed by fourth-seeded Chinese Zi Yang 2-6, 1-6 to clinch in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) girls’ grade II tournament at the DLTA complex here Friday.

In the all-Chinese boys’ final, third-seeded Bowen Ouyang recovered from a set down to post a thrilling 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 victory over second-seed Chuhan Wang.

The 17-year-old Shroff had a good run in the tournament and had beaten second seeded Chinese Ran Tian in the semifinals. She, however, struggled with her rhythm and was error-prone in the final.

Yang, who took out top seed Japanese Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals, was fluent with her backhand strokes and dominated the rallies during the match, which lasted little over an hour.

The Chinese had little difficulty in breaking Shroff in the first and the seventh game to pocket the first set and then swept away the second when Shroff committed a double fault on match point.

Shroff said she couldn’t execute her game plan.

“I was tired from my last match yesterday, but not to take credit from her (Yang), she played really well. I wasn’t able to execute my game plan, which was to keep her on the backfoot and play aggressively so, there are bound to be more errors. I did not have energy to grind from the backcourt,” Kyra said.

The Mumbai player, coached by former Davis Cupper Prahlad Srinath, is yet to take call on next week’s Asian Juniors tournament, which will also serve as a test event for the Commonwealth Games here.

“I am still contemplating. I have to see, there are some injury niggles. I was not supposed to play these two weeks, I was scheduled to play on the clay events and the French Open, but my visa got delayed. I am planning to play at Wimbledon and have to figure things accordingly,” she said.