Italian Mara Santangelo staged a remarkable recovery to beat Jelena Kostanic of Croatia and capture the US $175,000 Bangalore Open, her maiden WTA singles title, in Bangalore on Sunday.
Santangelo, the world number 59 and third seed in the Tier-III tournament, fought back from a set down to notch a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association courts on Sunday night.
"I am very happy," said the 24-year-old Italian, who reached the third round at the Australian Open this year.
After appearing out-of-sorts in the first set, Santangelo forced a tie-breaker in the second and then, in the decider, seemed a transformed player, raising her game and gaining in confidence in no small measure.
The Italian collected a winner's cheque of US $28,000 and 120 points, while Kostanic, the world number 50 and sixth seed, also aged 24, walked away with US $14,650 and 85 points.
Kostanic, who has had an impressive 2006 so far, reaching the semi-finals in singles at Hobart, third round at the Australian Open and second career Tour singles final at Pattaya City in Thailand last Sunday, in fact, started on a confident note and pocketed the first set easily and appeared to be cruising to a straight-set victory.
However, Santangelo, winner of six ITF Women's Circuit singles, settled down in the second set, never gave up and stayed on course waiting for her opportunities.
Victory in the tie-breaker in the second set boosted Santangelo's confidence and suddenly it appeared everything was going right for her in the decider as she raced to a 3-0 lead.
Costanic, winner of six Tour doubles titles, struggled with her timing in the third set and gave vent to her frustrations and her attempts to get back into the match were thwarted by the Italian who was on top by this stage.
