After the exit of topseed Sheetal Gautam and second seed Shruti Gautam in the semi-finals yesterday, it provided Tulpule a golden opportunity to wear the girls crown. However, it was not a smooth sailing for her. She had to fight for every point after Nida Waseem, the reigning Pakistan ladies champion, had equalised by winning the second set. A never-say-die Nida was trailing 1-4 in the second set before she won five games in a row and win to make it one set all.

In the 12th game Nida saved two match points to make it 6-6. The issue went into the tie-breaker where Tulpule won 6-3. Nida Waseem executed her backhand with power. Expressing happiness over winning the first ITF tournament, Tulpule, a trainee of Batra Training Centre under Nandan Bal at Pune, said ``after analysing Nida's game, I found her forehand very strong. So I decided to change my strategy. I starting exploiting Nida's a comparatively weak forehand. It worked and paved my way to the victory podium.''

In the 113-minute final, Nida made 12 doubles faults, including three in the eighth game of the third set. Tulpule committed three double faults, including two in the seventh game of the second set.

`Thrilled to win here,'' was the crisp comment by Nomi Qamar who beat top favourite Kedar Tembe of India in the final. Tembe had to blame himself for his defeat. After taking the first set, he was leading 4-1 in the second set. However he let his opponent off the hook by committing unforced errors. ``In the beginning I was playing high ball, hitting with power on both sides. Two forehands and one backhand or two backhands and one forehand. As Tembe was playing the low ball game, I switched to a new game plan. I began hitting at a slower pace aiming to keep the ball in and forcing my opponent to commit the errors. I engaged him in rallies. That was the key factor for my maiden triumph in India. I had lost in quarter-final in the Delhi ITF last week,'' explained an elated Nomi Qamar.

Every body had virtually written Nomi off after the Pakistani player was 1-4 down in the second set, a tennis player/official Sukhwant Basra, son of former international athlete Balwant Singh Basra, was confident that the Pakistani player would stage a comeback!

In the first set, Qamar was mostly hitting too long or wide and surrendered at 2-6. He was broken in the second, fourth and eighth games. His lone break came in the fifth game 1-4.

Tembe, who had a variety of shots up his sleeve, raced to a comfortable 4-1 lead. However, Qamar, a double-handed player (backhand as well and forehand) had the other ideas. He won three games in a row to make it 4-all and 6-all. In tie-breaker he won 8-6 to level the set one-all.

Tembe looked exhausted in the decider as Pakistan Tennis Federation joint secretary Khalid Rehmani observed ``the Indian player started looking toward the stands (spectators). This is generally an indication that concerned player is nearly exhausted.''

It was Tembe who first broke Qamar to take 2-1 lead. He was contained there and then by the Pakistani player, who won five games in a row to snuff out Tembe's challenge 6-2.

Akshay Vishal Rao and Sunil Kumar claimed the boys doubles title by upsetting topseeded pair of Kedar Shah and Karan Doctor 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the final of the Centurion ITF Tennis Circuit here today.

Results (all finals)
Boys
Singles: Nomi Qamar (Pak) bt Kedar Tembe (Ind) 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
Doubles: Akshay Vishal Rao and Sunil Kumar bt Kedar Shah and Karan Doctor 5-7. 6-3, 6-3.

Girls
Singles: Radhika Tulpule (Ind) bt Nida Waseem (Pak) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (3).