Prerna Bhambri wins first ITF title

18-year-old Prerna Bhambri upset top seed Keren Shlomo, of Israel, to win her maiden ITF Futures title at the DLTA complex on Saturday. Bhambri beat the 23 year old Israeli, ranked 494 in the world, 6-2, 6-3 in a little less than an hour. Bhambri had also reached the semi-finals of the ITF event last week.

In an interview to Times of India, the leading Indian daily newspaper, Prerna said, "I started playing tennis about 13 years back at the Shanti sports complex in Vasant Kunj. From there I moved on to train with Aditya Sachdeva at the Siri Fort complex and have been with him ever since.It was great to have the support of my family while playing the final. I made a lot of unforced errors in the semifinals but kept them in check. My coach told me to play my game and I managed to do that."

Bhambri will now rise to around 750 in the WTA rankings and hopes to follow her famous cousin Yuki into the top 400 by the year end. "I will look to break into the top-400 by the end of the year. I have already risen to 700 now and if I can continue my form I think it's a realistic goal."

With inputs from Times of India