Ahmedabad: Dev Javia dished out a clinical display to claim his maiden singles title at the ITF M$15K tennis tournament in Hurghada, Egypt, on Sunday. The unseeded Ahmedabad-born player claimed a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over seventh seed Aaron Funk of Germany.En route to the trophy, the 24-year-old, who trains at the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy, defeated the top seed in the first round before accounting for the fifth seed in the quarter-final.The final was a blemishless display, with the 1,162nd-ranked Dev right on top of his game from the word go. He broke for a 3-1 lead in the fourth game. In the fifth game, Dev was leading 40-15, but a couple of errors allowed the German to bring it to deuce. Dev, however, held his serve to forge ahead 4-1. With both players holding their serve, Dev upped the ante in the eighth game to win the opening set 6-2.Any hopes Funk had of making a comeback were dashed at the beginning of the second set as Dev marched to a 3-0 lead. Both players held their serve thereafter. With Dev serving for the title in the ninth game, Funk had an opportunity to break his opponent, but the Indian got his act together and served out the match to clinch his maiden singles title.Reflecting on the contest, Dev told TOI, “It was a composed performance from me. I was mentally focused. Only in the last game of the match, when I was serving for the title, I was a break point down. But I regrouped to save the break point and clinch the title. I had a game plan, and I executed it.”“From 2022 till now, I could not appear in tournaments because of many injuries. So, more than my tennis performance, I’m happy with my mental strength. The goal was to compete physically and maintain the mental level,” said Dev, who trains under Suresh Maurya.
