Finnish netter rules ICTSI Women’s Circuit

Piaa Suomalainen of Finland is the best lady netter for the ICTSI-ITF Women’s Circuit Week 1. The Finnish netter took advantage of the error-prone game of Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand to hammer out a 6-3, 6-3 win Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center and bag the first stage of this ranking tour event of the International Tennis Federation. Suomalainen, who made it to the championship round by outplaying Gally De Wael of Belgium in the semifinal round, 6-4, 6-2, dominated her Asian counterpart from start to finish in winning the tournament and pocketing the top prize of $1,568.

The 26-year-old Finnish, who was ranked No.3 in this event, also got additional ranking points from the sanctioning ITF. “I felt pretty good. I played a good game and barely committed mistakes while she committed a lot of errors and that proved to be the difference," said Suomalainen, who hails from Helsinki. Kumkhum, who defeated Fil-German netter Katharina Lenhert in the semifinals, 6-4, 6-2, received $980 for her runner-up finish. Meanwhile, the Chinese pair of Yang Zhaoxuan and Zhu Lin defeated the combo of Kim Ji-Young and Kin Jin-Hee of South Korea, 6-2, 6-2, in the doubles finals. The Chinese connection pocketed the $637 champion prize while the South Korean pair got $343. The second week of the ITF Women’s Circuit, presented by Smart-PLDT, begins on Monday with some of the crack lady players in the international scene vying for additional ranking points. It will be a busy month for tennis as after the ICTSI-ITF bash, Phinma will stage the International Junior Tennis Championships Week 1 on Nov. 21-28, then unveils its Week 2 events from Nov. 28 to Dec. 5 also at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. - Rey Joble, GMANews.TV