UKRAINE’S Marianna Zakarlyuk celebrated International Women’s Day on Sunday with her first Mildura Grand Tennis International singles title.
Zakarlyuk, 23, defeated Japan’s Misaki Matsuda 7-6 (2), 6-1 in perfect conditions at the Mildura Lawn Tennis Club.
The win was Zakarlyuk’s biggest of her short career and she now has her sights set on much grander things.
“Hopefully, fingers crossed, I can get my ranking to around 200 or even lower by the end of the year,” Zakarlyuk said.
“Who knows maybe next year I can come back and play Oz Open and Mildura as well.”
Zakarlyuk controlled the match early and looked to be cruising at 5-3 in the first set, but a number of unforced errors allowed Matsuda back into the set, forcing it to a tie-breaker.
But the big-serving Ukrainian her steadied to serve out the opening set.
From there it was one-way traffic as Zakarlyuk took control of the match, totally overpowering her smaller Japanese opponent.
Zakarlyuk said she had been a little unsure how she would perform coming into this year’s tournament having had little experience on grass.
“I practiced with Misaki on the Friday before the tournament and we said to each other – “how can we play on this?’’ – but here we are.,” Zakarlyuk said.
“Grass is not something I play on often so it was different for me coming to this tournament, but still I enjoyed it and I think it does really suit my game.”
