Maia Lumsden reaches final of ITF tournament in Israel
The 21-year-old battled through to the final of the W25 Kiryat Shmona tournament.
But her hopes of adding to the W25 titles she won at Shrewsbury last year and the W15 titles taken at the Wirral and Sunderland in 2017 were ended by Ukraine’s Daria Snigur who defeated her in straight sets.
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Hide AdSeeded second for the tournament, Maia opened up against Sadafmoh Tolibova of Belarus, taking a tight first set on the tiebreak and proving too strong in the second to go through 7-6 6-2.
In the second round Maia dropped the opening set against India’s Mihika Yadav, but staged a fine recovery to win 4-6 6-3 6-2.
That put her through to a quarter-final tie with Germany’s Natalia Siedliska and once again Maia had to come from behind after the German player took the first set tiebreak.
But the Lenzie player again showed her resolve to come through in three sets, winning 6-7 6-1 6-3.
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Hide AdYet another three-set encounter followed in Maia’s semi-final against another German player, Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic.
This time Lumsden won the first set only to be pegged back by Sekulic taking the second to level. But Maia prevailed, taking the decider to win 6-3 3-6 6-4.
However a hectic schedule took its toll in the final against number three seed Snigur who had enjoyed a less taxing route to the final with just one set dropped.
Snigur took the first set 6-1 and although Maia rallied in the second Snigur closed it out 6-4.