At the BRD Bucharest Open, in front of a home crowd, world number five and 2014 champion Simona Halep lived up to expectations when she took home the title for the second time in her career. With the trophy, the Romanian strengthens her top five ranking.
A similar occurrence took place over the continent in the Alps region with 23-year-old Swiss Viktorija Golubic collecting her maiden WTA title at the inaugural Ladies Championship Gstaad. She will make her top 100 debut in the rankings courtesy of the victory.
Last week’s titlists
Romania’s number one Simona Halep 2016 season prior to the French Open featured a stop-start pattern. Despite winning her equal-biggest title at the Mutua Madrid Open, making the semifinals of Sydney and the quarterfinals of Indian Wells and Miami, she did leave four other tournaments winless, most notably the Australian Open. She has since gained significant momentum in getting her 2016 into full swing by reaching the round of 16 at the French Open and the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.
Halep then returned to Bucharest as the top seed, looking to reclaim the title she won two years ago. After seeing off Barbora Krejcikova in the first round in three sets, she overcame Isabella Shinikova and sixth-seeded Danka Kovinic to book her place in the last four. There, she faced American Vania King and survived her biggest test of the week, beating her opponent in three sets after dropping the first set tiebreak.
She saved her best for last, scoring a double bagel in the final over seventh seed Anastasija Sevastova to rack in her 13th career title. This also marked the first time in Halep’s career where she has won a tournament more than once.
The seeds fared well in the Romanian capital, with five inclusive of Halep, Kovinic, and Sevastova making at least the quarterfinals. The others were fourth seed Laura Siegemund and second seed Sara Errani, who fell in the last four and last eight respectively, both to Sevastova. The only other seeded Romanian, fifth seed and 2015 semifinalist Monica Niculescu went out in the second round to Polona Hercog and so did eighth seed Cagla Buyukakcay who lost to King. Defending champion, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova who was seeded third was ousted in the first round by Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Last week saw the return of a WTA tournament to Switzerland for the first time since 2008. Played on dirt in Gstaad in the southwestern region of the country, the inaugural Ladies Championship Gstaad faced weather challenges at the beginning through the middle of the week with all first round matches only managed to be completed on Friday. The tournament, however, ended on a sweet note with local girl Viktorija Golubic taking home the title, coming back from a set down in the final to defeat third seed and on-paper favourite Kiki Bertens, the Swiss’ breakthrough season continues.
Prior to Gstaad, Golubic’s most notable achievements were winning both her singles rubbers in the Fed Cup semifinals where her nation faced the Czech Republic. Then, at the French Open, she notched her first ever Grand Slam win, over Alison Riske and a week later, making her first ever WTA quarterfinal at the Ricoh Open where she was defeated by compatriot Belinda Bencic.
The Zurich-born Golubic began her Gstaad campaign against seventh seed Mona Barthel, whom she defeated in three sets. The Swiss never dropped a set en route to the final. In the last four, she went up against wildcard and fellow Swiss, 16-year-old Rebeka Masarova who was in her first ever WTA main draw appearance. A Swiss player was guaranteed to make the final. Golubic won the match with the loss of just five games and then went on to beat Bertens to take home the trophy.
Top seed Timea Bacsinszky was impressive by reaching the semifinals, having not lost a set all tournament. Second seed Jelena Jankovic however, was beaten by Masarova at the first hurdle, despite having won the first set comfortably. The Serb admitted that a leg strain was troubling her and has since withdrawn from Bastad and Montreal. The only other seed who crashed out in the first round was fourth seed Caroline Garcia. Other than that, fifth seed Annika Beck and sixth seed Johanna Larsson logged in quarterfinal appearances.
Rankings
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The Bucharest title extends the gap between fifth-ranked Halep and sixth-ranked Victoria Azarenka. Bacsinszky goes up two places to world number 15 after her semifinal run in Gstaad. Gstaad runner-up Bertens cracks a new career-high ranking of number 21, an improvement of five places. Sevastova, the Bucharest finalist is back in the top 50 for the first time since mid-2011, currently sitting at number 49, rising 17 spots from 66th. Bucharest quarterfinalist Pauline Parmentier of France goes up from 74th to 66th.
Golubic cracks the top 100 rankings for the first time in her career, vaulting 33 spots from 105th to number 72. German Carina Witthoeft, who reached the last eight in Gstaad moves up six places to number 94. Gstaad’s surprise semifinalist Masarova sees her ranking take a more-than-400-spot leap from 797th into the top 400 at number 314.
Schmiedlova is out of the top 50 after failing to defend her Bucharest title, plunging from 43rd to 51st. Last year’s Bucharest semifinalist Niculescu drops from 53rd to 61st after falling out in the second round.
Road to Singapore
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In the race to the WTA Finals, Halep moves up two spots to take over the number six position from Carla Suárez Navarro. Bacsinszky and Bertens improve two spots as well, from 13th to 11th and 16th to 14th respectively. Bucharest semifinalist Siegemund rises from 39th to 34th while Sevastova enters the top 50 standings, from 67th to 46th.
Golubic is not far behind as the Swiss takes a 35-spot-leap from 94th to 59th. Witthoeft rises from number 90 to number 82 while Russia’s Irina Khromacheva who made her first ever WTA quarterfinal in Gstaad is up nine spots, into the top 90 at 84th. Bucharest semifinalist King moves into the top 100 standings at 96th, up 19 places from number 115.
This week’s action
The opening tournament of the US Open Series, the Premier-level Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California kicks off this week. Two-time winner Venus Williams and former champion Dominika Cibulkova lead the pack.
Besides that, the American capital, Washington D.C. and the Swedish city of Bastad will host a pair of International tournaments, namely the Citi Open and Ericsson Open respectively. World number two Angelique Kerber headlines Bastad whereas Samantha Stosur and defending champion Sloane Stephens spearhead the draw in Washington D.C.