India’s Yashaswini Ghorpade won the U-19 Girls’ Singles title at the WTT Youth Star Contender Doha on Sunday. The 18-year old defeated second seed Yuna Ojio 3-2 (7-11, 15-13, 11-5, 8-11, 11-9) in the final on 15th October 2023.
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Yashaswini Ghorpade is currently ranked 7th in the world in the WTT Youth rankings. The Indian entered the tournament as a wildcard. In the final, she initially struggled against Ojio’s unique style of play as she used the katana grip.
However Ghropade seemed to have found the rhythm in the second game. She took a big 7-2 lead. But things were not as easy as Ojio made a comeback in the contest with eight successive points to get to a 10-7 lead.
She had the advantage of two game points. Ghorpade however held her nerves and got to a game point of her own at 14-13. She finally wrapped it up 15-13 and levelling the score 1-1.
In the third game Ghoprade dominated and won it easily to take lead in the contest. But Ojio made a comeback in the fourth game. She won it 11-8 and took the match all the way to the decider.
The decider too was a neck-to-neck battle but the Indian had the last laugh as she wrapped up the contest and got her hands on the title.
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