Cristian banishes painful memories with biggest title yet
After six months away from competition, Jacqueline Adina Cristian made the perfect return to the winner’s circle on Sunday as she walked away with the biggest title of her career on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W80+H Le Neubourg.
The 24-year-old Romanian, who injured her knee in excruciating fashion during a clash with Daria Kasatkina at the WTA tournament in Doha in February, banished those painful memories with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Magali Kempen in the title match.
"This trophy means a lot, coming back after knee surgery, six months of rehab, pain, a lot of doubts, crying, hoping, training hard to get back on court to do what I love the most...winning this feels just amazing," Cristian posted on Instagram. "This trophy it’s about team work and trusting the process! Now, let the comeback season begin! I missed it so much!!!"
The victory marked her 11th ITF singles title, her first above W25 level, and the first time she has won five matches on the bounce since she claimed the title at W25 Trnava in February 2020.
Cristian had been taking purposeful strides before injury curtailed her progress, making her Grand Slam debut and reaching the second round at the 2022 Australian Open, before climbing to a career-high No. 58 in the world in February.
She made her competitive return at the this month's US Open, only for Anett Kontaveit to deliver a crushing 6-3 6-0 blow, but proved her mettle by winning a decisive third set in four of her five matches on French soil last week.
Cristian was one of three Romanian winners on the ITF World Tennis Tour this weekend, along with Patricia Maria Tig, who won her first ITF singles title since 2019 and her 15th in total at W15 Varna, and Karola Patricia Bejenaru, who won her maiden pro singles title at W15 Melilla.
Meanwhile, the future of tennis is shaping up rather nicely (mostly thanks to one particular family in the Czech Republic) as sisters Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova enjoyed another milestone weekend.
While 17-year-old Linda was busy winning her first WTA title in Chennai, 15-year-old Brenda captured her fifth straight title on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W25 Santa Margherita di Pula courtesy of a 7-5 2-0 ret. win over Jessica Pieri.
The younger Fruhvirtova has now won 25 consecutive matches, dropping just two sets in the process. Her winning run is the longest uninterrupted winning streak on the ITF World Tennis Tour since Mayar Sherif won 26 consecutive matches through three W15 and two W25 tournaments in 2019.
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