Anna Bondar ended a nine-year wait for a hard court title after emerging triumphant amid a field of rising talents on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W75 Porto.

The 26-year-old Hungarian overcame rising teenagers Alexandra Eala and Celine Naef in back-to-back three-set battles, before defeating Germany’s Noma Noha Akugue 7-6(4) 6-2 in the title match.

As a result she lifted her 15th professional singles title and her first on a hard court since she won a $10,000 ITF event in Antalya in 2015. Just three of her 15 singles titles have come on a hard court, with the other 12 on her favoured clay.

Bondar’s victory ends a difficult run of three consecutive main draw first round defeats – at WTA events in Linz and Cluj Napoca, and at W50 Roehampton. The former world No. 50 had also missed out on a place in the Australian Open for the first time since 2021 after falling in the final round of qualifying in Melbourne.

She climbs nine places this week to world No. 111, eyeing a return to the Top 100 for the first time since May.

Though Noah Akugue missed out on the chance to claim the biggest title of her fledgling career – and just her second overall after W15 Cairo in May 2022 – she could still be content with a hugely positive week in Portugal having ended a torrid run of form.

The 20-year-old German was on a 12-match losing streak dating back to her quarter-final loss to former world No. 5 Sara Errani at the WTA 125 Bucharest event last September.

It’s also been a standout spell for 17-year-old Czech Tereza Valentova, who won her first two professional singles titles in back-to-back weeks at W15 Monastir.

Valentova, who peaked at No. 5 in the junior rankings last October, came through both events in Tunisia – her 10th and 11th at professional level – in straight sets, defeating China’s Yufei Ren and Audrey Albie, of France, in each final.

Click here for all the latest women’s results on the ITF World Tennis Tour