Northridge Girl Wins Tennis Title : Sports: Meilen Tu, 16, captures the singles division at the U.S. Open tournament.

Meilen Tu of Northridge defeated top-ranked Martina Hingis of Switzerland on Sunday to capture the girls’ singles title at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadow, N.Y.

Tu, 16, was the fourth seed in the tournament, but beat Hingis 6-2, 6-4, at the United States Tennis Assn.’s National Tennis Center.

Tu defeated Kim de Weille of the Netherlands, 7-5, 6-4, in a semifinal match Saturday. She advanced to the semifinals of the junior girls’ draw Friday when she beat Tara Snyder, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Tu, who turns 17 in January, has said that she gave up many things to reach the U.S. Open. She withdrew from Granada Hills High School last fall, where she would have been a senior, so she could tour with the U.S. Junior team.

She is enrolled in a Los Angeles Unified School District independent study program.

The move paid off when she earned a wild card entry into her first Grand Slam tournament.

“I’m sacrificing the normal teen-age life,” she said in August. “But it doesn’t bother me that I can’t go out every Friday and Saturday night till, like, 2 o’clock in the morning.”

At 16, Tu was the youngest player and the only junior in the main draw of the professional U.S. Open. Tu lost a tough first-round match against Silvia Farina of Italy, 7-5, 6-7, (8-6), 6-1.

The 5-foot-5, 105-pound teen-ager works out for four hours a day at the Warner Center Club in Woodland Hills, a secluded gym and tennis court located atop a seven-story parking garage. She lifts weights with a personal trainer and has a massage therapist along with the daily tutoring of Bill McClain, her coach for the past 14 months.