Papamichail triumphs as Greek players continue to make their mark
With Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari flying high at the top of the game, Greek tennis is enjoying something of a golden era.
And it seems that the nation’s flourishing talents at the top of the ATP and WTA Tours are inspiring the form of their compatriots lower down the sport too.
The Greek women's No. 2, Despina Papamichail, climbed 34 spots to a career-high ranking of No. 227 on Monday after winning her most significant title yet on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W60 Charleston.
The 28-year-old - one of three Greek players in the WTA’s Top 300 along with world No. 18 Sakkari and No. 278 Valentini Grammatikopoulou – defeated Brazil’s Gabriela Ce 1-6 6-3 6-3 in the final for her 15th career title and first above W25 level.
Papamichail’s win was her first title since July 2019, when she won at W25 Aschaffenburg.
Elsewhere over the weekend, 18-year-old Diane Parry won her second career ITF title after defeating fellow emerging French star Elsa Jacquemot 6-3 6-1 at W25 Perigueux.
Runner-up Jacquemot, who won the 2020 girls’ singles title at Roland Garros and promptly peaked at No. 1 in an impressive finish to her junior career, ended a five-match losing streak with her run to her first professional final.
Meanwhie, Ylena In-Albon won her second title of the year – and eighth ITF crown overall – at W25 Klosters, while 21-year-old Mai Hontama, of Japan, won the other W25-level tournament last week at W25 Porto.
Zimbabwe’s Valeria Valeria Bhunu continued the good form she displayed while on Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas duty earlier in the month, qualifying for - and then winning - W15 Monastir for her first ITF title in six years.
Twenty-six-year-old Bhunu, whose only previous tournament win came at a $10k ITF event in Stellenbosch in 2015, defeated Saki Imamura 6-2 6-2 in the title match to stretch her winning streak to 10-straight matches, to add to the three wins she achieved while representing her country in Europe/Africa Group III in Vilnius, Lithuania.
There were also wins for Rosa Vicens Mas at W15 Antalya, Tatiana Pieri at W15 L’aquila and Quirine Lemoine at W15 Alkmaar.
The ITF World Tennis Tour continues this week with seven women's tournaments, headlined by W60 Montpellier. Follow all the latest results here.