Galfi finds her feet on grass, claims biggest title yet at W100 Ilkley
Dalma Galfi clinched the biggest title of her career – and first on grass – after triumphing on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W100 Ilkley on Sunday.
The 23-year-old from Hungary fought through the pain after taking a tumble at 2-2 in the deciding set to overcome Great Britain’s Jodie Burrage 7-5 4-6 6-3 in the title match.
“I took as many painkillers as possible and yeah it was definitely worth it,” said Galfi. “I also would like to congratulate Jodie for a great week because she played amazing. Even today, it was really, really tough match.
“It was really a great week for me, the crowd was great even though it was against me a lot, but we were enjoying the atmosphere, the tournament is great and I would love to come back next year.”
Read more about W100 Ilkley – ‘the Wimbledon of the North’
Galfi, who topped the junior rankings in 2015 after winning the girls’ singles title at the US Open, climbed to a new career-high ranking in the women’s game by virtue of her triumph – rising 17 places to No. 81 in the world.
Her Ilkley win was her ninth singles title on the ITF World Tennis Tour overall, and her first title above W25 level. Galfi’s first seven tournament victories came on hard courts between 2014 and 2016, before she ended a four-and-a-half-year wait for further silverware with victory on clay at W25 Denain last year.
Burrage, meanwhile, also had cause to celebrate after reaching her first W100 final and climbing to a career-high ranking of No. 169 on Monday a result of a strong week in West Yorkshire that saw her record wins over former world No. 12 Yanina Wickmayer, former No. 66 Mandy Minella, and a player on the cusp of the Top 100 in Katie Volynets.
The Brit was keen to acknowledge the crowd support in Ilkley (the venue was at full capacity over the final weekend), which gave the home favourite an added boost throughout the week.
“It’s been such a pleasure to play in front of you guys,” she told the crowd. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever played in front of a crowd as good as you guys so I’ve loved every single minute of, maybe not the last two points, but yeah apart from that every single minute. I’ve played some good tennis and yeah just ready to keep that going.”
Elsewhere on the ITF World Tennis Tour, 16-year-old Czech Sara Bejlek continued her rapid transition to the women's game after collecting her second title at W60 level.
The current junior world No. 53, who reached the semi-finals in the girls' singles event at Roland Garros at the turn of June, defeated compatriot Jesika Maleckova 6-4 6-4 to win W60 Ceska Lipa.
It was her second title in a row, having also won W25 Santa Margehrita di Pula on her last tournament outing in the women's game in May, and follows her victory at W60 Olomouc last July.
Spaniard Marina Bassols Ribera won the other W60 title up for grabs over the weekend, seeing off emerging talent Alexandra Eala 6-4 7-5 for the biggest win of her career.
The 22-year-old now has six ITF titles to her name, with all five of her previous wins coming at W15 level.
Catch up on all the weekend's results on the ITF World Tennis Tour here