Unseeded Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia set herself up for a double title at the L&T Mumbai Open after rallying from a set down to overcome her higher-ranked Uzbekistan opponent Sabina Sharipova in the semi-final on Saturday.
In the title clash, she will take on top seed Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus who notched a comprehensive 6-2, 6-3 win over France’s Amandine Hesse.
The 26-year-old, who entered the doubles final with her Russian partner Irina Khromacheva quelled a strong challenge from her younger Uzbek rival to chalk out a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in 1 hour and 41 minutes in the WTA event at the Cricket Club of India. Jakupovic has not reached beyond the second round of a WTA event before reaching this.
The Belarusian on the other hand needed only an hour to overcome the French qualifier, and was hardly troubled throughout the semifinal. The 19-year-old, who at 96 is the only yop-100 player in the draw, is set for the biggest title of her career.
The top seed was in dangerous form hitting nine aces and winning a whopping 93% of points on her first serve and didn’t face a single a break point.
Jakupovic, ranked 252, dropped the first set after taking an early 2-0 lead as she was broken in successive games which helped her 23-year-old rival from Tashkent, ranked 186, take a 4-2 lead from where Sharipova surged to the set 6-3 in half an hour. But the Slovenian bounced back brilliantly to break her rival in the fifth game of the second set that she later clinched 6-3 in 31 minutes leading to the decider.
The Slovenian player then held serve at 15 for a 5-3 lead and then put Sharipova’s service under press again to prise out errors from the Uzbek’s racquet.
Sharipova netted a forehand to be a match-point down, saved it but double-faulted to face the second match-point and dropped the serve and the match when she hit a forehand wide.
In the doubles semi final, the second-seeded pair of Jakupovic and Khromacheva got the better of fourth seeds Julia Glushko of Israel and Priscilla Hon of Australia 6-3, 6-2. They will meet Victoria Rodrigues of Mexico and Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands in the final on Sunday which will be played after the singles final.
