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In an exciting finale to the ITF Lexington Challenger, second seed Sania Mirza produced some thrilling tennis on the big points to hold her nerve and edge out top-seeded Frenchwoman Julie Coin 7-6 (5), 6-4 in front of a passionate and often over-zealous packed Indian contingent at Kentucky.

Mirza broke Julie Coin in the very first game of the match, and consolidated the break to take an early 2-0 lead. Coin got herself on the scoreboard in the following game and broke the Mirza serve to level proceedings at 2 games apiece.

Both girls held serve till the 8th game of the opening set when Coin broke Sania to pull ahead 5-3. Mirza however showed tremendous stomach for the fight breaking straight back and then holding on to two under-pressure service games to force the opening set into a tie-break.

The breaker mirrored the set, with Coin pulling ahead 5-2 before a Mirza fight back saw the Indian ace win four points in a row to nick the tiebreak 7-5.

The second set was just as exciting as the first, with Coin taking an early break to go ahead 2-1, only for Sania to break straight back.

Sania had the slight advantage going into the business end of the second set serving first, and broke Coin for a 5-3 lead.

Sania served for the match, but was promptly broken back by Julie. However Sania broke the Coin serve one final time in a marathon tenth game to seal an impressive win. Amazingly, this was only the second ITF $50,000 event that Sania had participated in, the first being way back in 2003 when she was still making a name for herself on the pro tour.

Speaking after the match, Brooks Downing, managing director of the BEST/Collegiate Division (the Lexington-based agency that owns and runs the event), "This was the largest paid attendance for the Lexington Challenger's Sunday finals...and we owe that in no small part to Mirza's talent and celebrity and the passionate fans from her homeland - students from the University of Kentucky and many others from central Kentucky - who came out to cheer her on. We loved that!"

One person who didn't enjoy the crowd was Julie Coin, "It felt like I was playing Fed Cup," said a practically-tearful Coin afterwards about her foe's home-court advantage. "(The Indians in the crowd) were cheering my faults and misses."

Sania meanwhile was chased by hundreds of autograph hunters all the way back to her car!

Both girls now head over to Stanford for the Bank of the West Classic. Coin ranked 63rd in the world has just sneaked into the main draw of 32, while Mirza thanks to her final appearance at Lexington is too late to enter the qualifying rounds, and will instead feature in the doubles alongside American Meghann Shaughnessy.

Winning the ITF Lexington Challenger is the perfect start to the US summer hardcourt season for Mirza, as she participates in 6 tournaments (including two more ITF Challengers) in the run-up to the US Open, which commences on the 31st of August.

File Photograph: Madrid Open