Bondar and Rus claim biggest titles yet on ITF World Tennis Tour
Anna Bondar won the biggest singles and doubles titles of her career on Sunday to cap a perfect week on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W80 Wiesbaden.
The 24-year-old Hungarian, who hadn’t won a singles title in over two and a half years before the German clay court tournament last week, defeated Clara Burel 6-2 6-4 to claim the singles crown and then won the doubles alongside Belgian Lara Salden.
The pair defeated Dutch-Australian duo Arianne Hartono and Olivia Tjandramulia in the title match.
Bondar’s singles victory was her 11th professional singles title – all of which have come at ITF level – and her first over W25 level. She has enjoyed greater success in doubles, with this her third triumph this year in the team format and her 21st ITF doubles crown overall.
Bondar climbed to career-high rankings in both formats of the game this week as a result of her double triumph, rising to No. 144 in singles and to No. 146 in doubles.
Meanwhile, Arantxa Rus continued her strong recent form on the ITF World Tennis Tour in the week’s other tournament at W80 level, claiming her third title in her last four events – and her biggest career victory yet – at W80 Valencia.
The 30-year-old Dutchwoman, who also won back-to-back titles in Gran Canaria in August without dropping a set, repeated the feat in Spain with a 6-4 7-6(3) triumph over Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu.
It marks another significant stride forward for Rus, who, two years ago, wrote her name into the ITF history books during a remarkable 2019 season that saw her claim 10 titles, all at W25 level, on the ITF World Tennis Tour – the most ever collected by a player (male or female) in a calendar year in ITF history.
Rus now sits just eight spots away from the career-high singles ranking of No. 61 she achieved back in August 2012.
Other ITF title winners last week include Kaia Kanepi, Raluca Georgiana Serban and Alina Charaeva, who all won at W25 level, and Anna Sinclair Rogers, Olga Helmi and Anastasia Zolotareva, who all won W15 tournaments.
The action continues on the ITF World Tennis Tour this week with another W80 tournament on French soil in Le Neubourg, where Bondar will seek to continue her winning run. Follow all the latest scores here.