BENGALURU: Belgium’s rising force Hanne Vandewinkel delivered a masterclass as the World No. 124 cruised past wildcard Vaishnavi Adkar 6-0, 6-1 to clinch the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open W100 in Bengaluru.
Ranked No. 690, the 21-year-old, who has trained under former World No. 1 Rohan Bopanna, was playing the biggest match of her career. And it showed as she could not match Vandewinkel’s poise, precision, and relentless consistency. With the strong hold at the baseline shots and clear return, the Belgian dictated the tempo throughout the game.
Adkar showed glimpses of promise in the third game of the second set, striking a couple of winners to hold serve for the first time. She then earned three break points in the fourth game as Vandewinkel briefly faltered. However, the Belgian adjusted with sharp tactical awareness, mixing up her returns and cleverly changing angles to throw Adkar off balance.
Vandewinkel's plan was to make Adkar work for every point as she would admit later. "It was a bit of an unknown coming into the match, but I knew she beat some really good players, so I was very aware of that. I didn't want to make the mistake of not being fully there in the match and letting her come into the match, because I saw in the last few matches she could play some really good tennis. So I think I was just there from the beginning,” Vandewinkel said after clinching the title.
Adkar, meanwhile, said it was a learning experience for her. “Learned a lot of things, and especially after a tough year last year, a week like this is really going to be helpful,” she said.