Pre-Olympic WTA action at the Brasil Tennis Cup in Florianopolis, capital of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina saw Romania’s number two Irina-Camelia Begu sail through to her third career title. Begu will move back into the world’s top 25 rankings as a result.
Across the Pacific Ocean in the Chinese province of Jiangxi, where its capital Nanchang hosted the newly-promoted International-level Jiangxi Women’s Tennis Open, local hope Duan Ying-Ying soared to her first ever WTA title. The Chinese player surges closer to a top 100 return with the title run.
Last week’s titlist
25-year-old Irina-Camelia Begu’s standout moment of 2016 prior to playing Florianopolis was the claycourt season where she posted spectacular results, making the last eight of the Mutua Madrid Open, the last four of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and the round of 16 at the French Open. Overall, she amassed a 13-5 record on the surface. Her transition to grass however, was not a smooth one as she ended winning just one match on the lawns, via a retirement from Belinda Bencic in Birmingham.
The Romanian’s week at the hometown of former world number one and triple French Open winner, Gustavo Kuerten began with a three-set win over Brazilian Laura Pigossi. She then steamrolled past the likes of Paula Cristina Goncalves, seventh seed Nao Hibino and third seed Monica Puig, all in straight sets to book her place in her first final of 2016. Facing sixth Timea Babos across the net, Begu overcame a stern opposition from her Hungarian opponent to claim the title. This marks the first time in her career where she won at least a title in consecutive seasons, having won Seoul last fall. Her first title came in Tashkent in 2012.
Top seed Jelena Jankovic who took a wildcard into the tournament saw her journey come to a halt in the second round in the hands of another Romanian, Ana Bogdan. Bogdan ended up reaching the semifinals where she lost to Babos. This year’s edition saw all seeds with the exception of Jankovic alongside ninth seed and defending champion, Brazil’s number one Teliana Pereira making the last eight. At that stage, Begu beat Hibino, Babos battle past fourth seed Jelena Ostapenko while Puig took out eighth seed Naomi Osaka.
Tianjin-born Duan Ying-Ying began her 2016 season in Shenzhen but was sent packing by Hsieh Su-Wei. After falling in Australian Open qualifying, the big-hitting Chinese scored her first WTA main draw win of the year in Kuala Lumpur over Hibino. She successfully qualified for Wimbledon, beating Kristyna Pliskova in the first round. She then faced seventh seed Roberta Vinci and lost in straight sets. Prior to Nanchang, Duan’s best results on the WTA were quarterfinal appearances in Pattaya City and Tianjin last year.
As an unseeded player, Duan secured her spot in the last eight in Nanchang after scoring wins over Russia’s Marina Melnikova and eighth seed Han Xinyun. There, she made little work of second seed Kurumi Nara and subsequently advanced into her first ever WTA final after beating Japan’s Misa Eguchi.
In the final, Duan faced American veteran and sixth seed Vania King, who was in her first final since finishing runner-up to Duan’s compatriot Zhang Shuai in Guangzhou in 2013. The American never dropped a set all week and looked on course for her first title since 2006 after claiming the first set before Duan raised her level to come out on top, winning the match 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 for her maiden WTA title. With the achievement, Duan becomes the first Chinese player to win a WTA title since Chinese trailblazer Li Na in 2014 where she won Shenzhen and the Australian Open that same year.
The Nanchang draw featured 12 Chinese players at the opening round stage led by fifth seed Zhang Kai-Lin, with seven of them advancing into the round of 16 and three making the quarterfinals. Duan was the sole surviving Chinese come the semifinals. In the top half, all four seeds, Francesca Schiavone (third seed), Risa Ozaki (seventh seed) along with Zhang and King made the last eight. Ozaki upset 2010 French Open champion Schiavone while King swept aside Zhang. In the bottom half however, fourth seed Donna Vekic and ninth seed Elitsa Kostova were not as fortunate as both bit the dust at the first hurdle.
Rankings
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Begu moves up from 31st to her career-high ranking of 25th with the Florianopolis trophy while Puig goes up three spots to number 34. Babos improves from 44th to 42nd. Japanese duo Hibino and Osaka who both made the last eight in Florianopolis rise from 84th to 75th and 88th to 84th respectively, the latter recording a new career high ranking. Meanwhile, Nanchang quarterfinalist Nara improves from 92nd to 88th
Moving down the list, King surges from 106th to close out the top 90 at 90th Schiavone moving back into the top 100 from number 104 to number 98. Nanchang champion Duan makes a 57-spot vault from 163rd to 106th. Florianopolis semifinalist Bogdan surges 15 spots to 112th with Nanchang semifinalist Ozaki not far behind at number 117. Fellow Nanchang semifinalist Eguchi moves up from 141st to 122nd.
Road to Singapore
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In the race to the WTA Finals, Puig solidifies her position in the top 20 standings by moving up a spot from 20th to 19th. Begu sits right behind Puig, rising 13 spots from 33rd to 20th. Not far below is Babos who moves up from 27th to 22nd.
Osaka advances into the top 60 standings, improving from 67th to 58th while King is up 20 spots to 66th. Both Hibino and Nara also make advancements, going up from 81st to 78th and 91st to 85th respectively. Duan makes a 90-spot leap from number 185, the Chinese now sits at number 94. Ozaki also cracks the top 100, rising up to 98th from 118th.
This week’s action
The Rio Olympics is now underway with a total of 64 players in the draw. Over the course of the event, the field will be narrowed down to just three athletes who will walk away with a medal for their country.