ITF World Tennis Tour Player of the Month: Darja Semenistaja
Darja Semenistaja has been named ITF World Tennis Tour Player of the Month after a stand-out July in which she went undefeated at ITF level and clinched two W60 titles.
The 20-year-old Latvian, who took home her biggest title yet at W60 Prague in May, has developed a taste for the ITF tour’s bigger tournaments in recent weeks.
She opened July with victory on home soil at W60 Liepaja, defeating American Jessie Aney 6-4 6-4 in the final, and ended the month as a champion at W60 Olomouc after fighting back to beat Croatian Lea Boskovic 6-7(6) 6-3 6-1 in the title match.
Those triumphs – which took her overall ITF singles tally to 14 – came either side of a run to the final round of the Wimbledon qualifying event in Roehampton, where she narrowly missed out on a maiden Grand Slam main draw berth at the hands of Belgian Greet Minnen.
Semenistaja’s fine July also extended to the doubles court. She reached the final at both W60 events in which she was a singles champion, claiming her biggest doubles crown to date alongside compatriot Daniela Vismane in Liepaja and finishing runner-up in Olomouc alongside Kazakh Zhibek Kulambayeva.
“I’m beyond happy to be announced as player of the month,” Semenistaja said on Tuesday. “I am very happy with the results I have made in last few months and with the progress my team and I have made.
“It motivates me to work even harder and go for bigger goals.”
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The lefthander is a former junior world No. 39 but it is on the ITF World Tennis Tour that she has honed her craft, achieving new milestones over each of the past three seasons.
The Latvian won a Tour-leading seven titles in 2021 – albeit triumphing exclusively at W15 level – before stepping up to claim three W25 titles in 2022.
She has kicked on again in 2023 with four titles so far this year (with W40 Mexico City adding to her three W60 wins), and currently sits in joint-second place for the most titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2023, behind only Yafan Wang.
What, then, has changed in her approach to the game to allow her to rise to another level over the past few months?
“I can’t say that any big changes have been made recently,” she said, “[But] I have definitely tried to improve my offence and be more aggressive on the court. It took some time to start doing that in matches but I’m happy to see some improvements.”
Semenistaja has climbed over 50 spots in the WTA rankings since the turn of the month and is on the brink of joining world No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko as one of two Latvian women in the world’s top 150.
“My ranking goal for this year was to be in top 150 by the end of the year,” admitted the world No. 154. “It is still a goal as I’m very close but haven’t done that yet, so I’m just trying to be very focused on each single small step I make. Once that goal [is] achieved, I will definitely set a new one.”
Semenistaja’s compelling July on the ITF World Tennis Tour
- Compiled a 10-0 win-loss record
- Went 20-3 in sets
- Defeated four top 300-ranked players
- Achieved two bagels (6-0 sets)
- Climbed 59 spots in the WTA rankings