Nungnadda, who was born in Nakhon Ratchasima, eliminated Brazilian Nathalia Rossi 6-2 6-1 in the final of the Guiness Ogbe Hardcourt tournament at the Samuel Ogbe Stadium.

She joins Tamarine Tanasugarn and Suchanan Viratpraset, the country's top two women's players, as the youngest ITF champions from Thailand. Tamarine won her first ITF trophy in 1993 in Manila at the age of 16 and Suchanan was 16 when she won in 1999 in Jakarta.

The tournament in Benin was Nungnadda's first serious outing on court since the end of last year when she was sidelined with injuries.

On her way to the title Nungnadda, whose nickname is "Jib", defeated Catherine Grotz of Belgium 6-2 6-0, then upset eighth-seeded Jessica Weyreuter of Argentina 6-0 6-0 and ousted Nigerian Blessing Samuel 6-1 6-0.

Her toughest match was the semi-final against second-seeded Davinia Lobbinger of Belgium, ranked No 715 in the world, who took her to three sets before the Thai advanced with a 6-3 6-7 (8-10) 7-5 victory.

This week Nungnadda will play the second leg of the Nigeria ITF circuit which will also run at the same venue from today until Saturday.

The teen prodigy, who has no world ranking, will have to produce good results in this week's series to gain enough points to make it onto the WTA computer.

Nungnadda has competed in only five professional tournaments, starting in Manila two years ago. Her best run before Nigeria was making in into the second round in her second ITF event in Manila two years ago.