Naiktha Bains of Leeds comes within two points of winning Ilkley Trophy doubles final

Leeds’s Naiktha Bains admitted that losing on a match-deciding tiebreak was ‘hard to take’ in the women’s doubles final of her home tournament at the Ilkley Trophy.
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Bains, 24, partnered Scotland’s Maia Lumsden, 24, in their second doubles final of the year.

The pair were champions in an ITF 25k event in Nottingham in May but the 100k event in Ilkley was the highest ranked tournament either had played during their career.

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In their way were another unseeded team made up of South Korea’s Su-Jeong Jang, 27, and Australia’s Lizette Cabrera, 24, both ranked in the world’s top 200 in singles and top 300 in doubles.

Naiktha Bains of Leeds had a good week at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)Naiktha Bains of Leeds had a good week at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)
Naiktha Bains of Leeds had a good week at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)

The home favourites got off to a slow start, Bains double faulting to lose serve and go 2-0 behind, but her excellent overhead after a good Lumsden serve got them on the board at 3-1.

In the next game Lumsden’s volley set up a break point which was double faulted to put the final back on serve.

After Cabrera and Jang’s break advantage was restored in the next game, Bains and Lumsden played a great return game to claw the set back to 5-5.

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A big hold of serve from Bains from 0-30 down sent the first set to a tiebreak which Lumsden got the British pair over the line with a stunning cross court backhand winner for 9-7.

Naiktah Bains in action at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)Naiktah Bains in action at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)
Naiktah Bains in action at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)

Another slow start in the second set snowballed into a 6-0 loss which sent the match and the championship to a 10-point tiebreak.

Bains served and volleyed to force a miss and go 6-2 up, but after losing their advantage due to a few errors, a powerful return at 10-9 saw Cabrera and Jang take the title 6-7 (7-9) 6-0 11-9.

On defeat in the final, Bains said: “It’s always tough to lose in a third set breaker, especially in a final.

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“I don’t think we’re going to get over that for a little while.

Naiktha Bains came within a point of winning the doubles final at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)Naiktha Bains came within a point of winning the doubles final at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)
Naiktha Bains came within a point of winning the doubles final at the Ilkley Trophy (Picture: Simon Hulme)

“Aside from the disappointment at the end, the week has been really fun. Playing with Maia is always one of my favourite things to do so I thank her for joining me this week.

“We’ve really felt the support all week. Hopefully next time we’ll get over the line in the final.

“Playing in the final of a 100k event, it has definitely been a positive week. It’s just hard to take.

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“We’re planning to play all the tournaments coming up in Britain together so that’s the plan for the near future.

“Beyond that, we’ll see, we’ll probably sit down, plan together and see where we can both play and go from there.”

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