HYDERABAD, Feb 12: Sania Mirza became the first Indian to win a WTA title when she defeated Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the final of the Hyderabad Open on Saturday.

Mirza kept her cool in front of a boisterous home crowd to beat her ninth seeded opponent, who was also gunning for her maiden WTA crown.

The 18-year-old thus continued her fine run after having made the third round of the recent Australian Open, the only time an Indian woman has got past two rounds of a Grand Slam event.

Nerves seemed to get the better of Mirza at the start of the match as she double-faulted three times to allow Bondarenko to go 2-0 up, but the Ukrainian could not hold on in the face of some probing returns of serve.

A volley of powerful groundstrokes helped Mirza clinch the first set but she lost the second, which was replete with service breaks.

Mirza then ran up a 5-1 lead in the third set and the end of the match saw some high drama with Mirza celebrating victory after serving what she thought was an ace at 40-30 in the seventh game.

Mirza lost her concentration and conceeded the game to Bondarenko, who followed it up by holding serve. Mirza had to wait for the ninth game to wrap up the match.

"This win has made me believe more in myself and I can now hope to do better in the coming days," Mirza said. "I wanted to win this tournament very badly since it was in my hometown."-AFP