Cristian rises again, takes out Tour-leader Dodin to win W60 Trnava
Jacqueline Adina Cristian skittled three former Top 50 players en route to a hugely impressive triumph on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W60 Trnava.
The 24-year-old Romanian fended off Clara Tauson and Tamara Zidansek, the former world No. 33 and No. 22, respectively, in three set battles before taking out former world No. 46 Oceane Dodin 7-6(7) 7-6(4) in the final.
In so doing, she denied the Frenchwoman – the ITF World Tennis Tour’s outright leader for match-wins this year with 22 - a fourth title of the year.
"I'm very happy," said Cristian. "It was a very tough match. She’s a very good player and she’s coming here after many wins. For sure I was looking forward to a good final, I’m really happy with the level that we both had, but in the end one had to win and I’m really happy that I could do it."
Cristian’s triumph comes off the back of a challenging 2022 campaign in which she missed six months of the season after injuring her knee in excruciating fashion at the WTA Doha event in late February.
After a challenging 2022 campaign in which Cristian missed six months of the season due to a knee injury, the Romanian is back on 🔝
— ITF (@ITFTennis) March 6, 2023
Read more ⤵️#ITFWorldTennisTour
Just weeks earlier, she had made her Grand Slam debut and reached the second round at the Australian Open, before climbing to a career-high No. 58 in the world.
She returned to the winner’s circle with her biggest title yet at W80+H Le Neubourg in September, while her latest triumph in Trnava marks her first W60 title and her 12th ITF singles title overall.
Though progress seems to be coming quickly for Cristian now - she climbed 64 places to No. 202 in the WTA rankings on Monday - the Romanian knows she still has plenty of work to do to return to her former heights.
"We are working still day by day on improvements, because there is a lot of room for improvements," she admitted. "But of course this is a very good start for me – especially because I’m coming back from injury – I’m really enjoying the process, and I’m happy that I feel I’m on the right way.
"Next, I really wish that I’m going to [stay] healthy. I’m going to try and play bigger tournaments also. But… [I'll take it] day by day."
Elsewhere this weekend, former junior world No. 4 Polina Kudermetova, 19, won the biggest title of her fledgling career at W40 Astana, beating Darya Astakhova 6-2 6-3 in the final.
China’s Sijia Wei continued her title-winning form of last year into 2023 and recorded her biggest triumph yet – and first outside Monastir – on French soil at W25 Joue les Tours.
Nineteen-year-old Wei came through qualifying to defeat compatriot Zhuoxuan Bai 6-4 7-6(5) in the final for her seventh ITF singles crown.
She won her first six on Tunisian soil last year during an impressive full debut season on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2022 that saw her amass 78 match-wins.
Click here for all the weekend's results from the ITF World Tennis Tour