The ITF World Tennis Tour once again saw a number of first time singles champions during week 37, in many cases showcasing young emerging talent. Teenagers accounted for half of the first-time champions and in total there were seven teenage winners.

Among the first-time champions was Guillermina Naya who was competing in her home city of Buenos Aires. A wild card entrant, Naya, 22, was competing in her second pro career singles final, and first for almost two years, and secured her first title at the W15 Buenos Aires tournament with a convincing 62 62 defeat of Brazilian Eduarda Piai, 27. Piai, who ranked as high as 359 in October 2013, had already seen off three Argentines coming into the final and had only dropped one set while Naya’s route to the final saw her see off seeded opposition in successive rounds, all without loss of a set. Following her maiden title win, Naya will be staying in Buenos Aires this week where she will be looking to build upon her success in her last tournament before turning 23 next week.

In Tunisia, Thomas Laurent came through qualifying to win his first pro singles title. Currently unranked, the Frenchman can now look forward to earning his first career ranking by the ATP on the next ranking release. 

In Romania at the M15 Brasov tournament, Nicholas Ionel, competing courtesy of a Junior reserved place, came from behind against qualifiers in both the quarter-final and semi-final to reach his first pro singles final. In the final, the 16-year-old came up against Ukrainian Oleksii Krutykh and in a close match narrowly won in straight sets 75 64.

One teenager achieved double success at the weekend. Zhibek Kulambayeva partnered YeXin Ma to win her first doubles title of the year at the fourth attempt in Saturday’s W15 Anning final, adding to her doubles triumph in April 2018. Kulambayeva returned to the court on Sunday morning to add a career first singles pro title with a 63 75 win over Oleksandra Oliynykova from Croatia.

Dan Added was celebrating a third singles title win of 2019 with his latest success coming at the M25 Mulhouse tournament in France and climbing to a new ATP career high of 447. Likewise, Orlando Luz has also risen to a new high. Winner in both the singles and doubles finals at the weekend in Spain’s M25 Seville tournament, Luz is now up to 355 in the latest ATP singles rankings.

A long wait between titles is finally over for Jade Suvrijn. The Frenchwoman won all four of her career titles back in 2013 and has now added a fifth title to her name with a 76(13) 62 defeat of Marina Yudanov in the W15 Dijon final to end a run of nine final losses since winning the last of her 2013 titles.

Former WTA top 100 player Arantxa Rus made it back-to-back title wins with a hard fought win over Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Rus eventually running out a 63 67(5) 64 winner in the W25 Santa Margherita di Pula final.