Indian tennis player Ankita Raina on Sunday won her first singles title of the 2019 season and eighth overall after trampling top seed Arantxa Rus in straight sets in the final of the USD 25,000 event in Singapore.

Coming into the tournament after competing at the Australian Open Qualifiers, Ankita demolished world number 122 and the Dutch top seed 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes.

“I’ve been working on my serve for a long while now and I think it’s starting to help. I also feel there’s more power in the strokes. It definitely helped playing the Grand Slam as the first tournament of the year. It gave a lot of positivity and self belief.

“Even though I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t qualify for the Australian Open since I expected that but I was grateful that I had reached where once I used to imagine I would be playing.”

“This tournament, even though it was 25k event, was a tough competition as all the qualifying players from Melbourne were here and also the last was 250th ranked. I played seeded players from the second round itself and saw a lot of things that I was working on with my coach a few days ago.

“There were a few things that I needed to work on mentally which I am happy I could work with my coach as he was around before the tournament. He eventually left after the first round match due to other commitments back home.

“Also the things I am working for the last six months are paying off. In fact, we were working on it in the Australian open and will continue,” she added.