Kalinina and Liu claim milestone W60 titles in Croatia and USA
Anhelina Kalinina and Claire Liu claimed their biggest professional singles titles yet after both won W60 tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour this weekend.
Kalinina, who had also collected the title at W25 Oeiras the previous week, continued her sparkling run of form on clay by beating Russian Kamilla Rakhimova 6-1 6-3 in the final at W60 Zagreb.
The 24-year-old Ukrainian has won 13 of her last 14 matches on the surface, racking up her 11th and 12th titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour in the process. Eleven of those triumphs have come on clay, adding to her lone hard-court triumph at a $50k ITF tournament in Sacramento in 2015.
The Zagreb tournament was also notable for the performance of unranked 15-year-old wild card Petra Marcinko - the current junior world No. 24 - who achieved her first professional match-win after defeating former world No. 32 Kurumi Nara in the first round.
Liu, meanwhile, secured her fifth ITF singles crown - and fourth on clay - after winning at W60 Charlottesville when her Chinese opponent Xinyu Wang retired while trailing 3-6 6-4 4-1.
The 20-year-old American had finished runner-up in back-to-back W25 events in Boca Raton and Newport beach in late February but struck it third time lucky in finals this season with her first title since October 2019 – albeit in unfortunate circumstance at the end.
“She has amazing power,” said Liu of her opponent after their ferocious battle. “She hits the ball so clean. I was trying to scrap and get as many balls back as possible and put as much pressure on her as I could. It started to work and I’m happy with the way I fought.
“It’s never fun ending a match like that. I don’t think anybody likes to do that. I just wish her all the best and I hope she can recover as fast as possible and be back on the court. She’s obviously a great player and it’ll be really fun to see her play again.”
Liu, who has won seven of the eight matches she has played this year, is hoping to use her biggest title yet as a springboard to further success in the months ahead.
“I’m trying to build as many matches as possible,” said the world No. 172. “Hopefully I can carry some momentum going in to the French Open and the European swing. I’m really happy with the way the summer has started, so hopefully I can keep it going.”
Other winners on the ITF World Tennis Tour last week included 18-year-old Russian Elina Avanesyan, who won her second title in her last three tournaments at W15 Cairo, and 19-year-old Australian Olivia Gadecki, who won her first career singles title at W15 Antalya.
Spaniard Maria Gutierrez Carrasco collected her first title on clay, and second ITF singles crown overall, at W25 Oeiras, while 21-year-old Czech Monika Kilnarova continued her good run of form on Tunisian soil, winning her second title of 2021 in W15 Monastir.