Tara proves her Wurth in Italy with biggest ITF title yet
Croatian teenager Tara Wurth secured the biggest title of her career on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W60+H Rome on Sunday.
The 19-year-old qualifier overcame Frenchwoman Chole Paquet 6-3 6-4 for her second straight title, and third overall following wins at W25 Trieste last September and W25 Tarvisio earlier this month.
“I have to play just tournaments in Italy,” Wurth joked after her third triumph on Italian clay. “It’s really good. A good time for me. This club is really impressive. I felt like home, I had a really good week.”
Wurth has won 16 of her last 17 matches on the ITF World Tennis Tour and climbed 79 places in the WTA rankings to a career-high No. 158 on Monday.
With her loftier status on the tour comes increased media attention but Wurth, who admitted she hadn’t expected to crack the Top 200 when she started her season outside the Top 350, says she is keen to get to grips with the extra interest.
“I hope I’m not saying anything wrong or funny…” she said. “This is all new for me, but I want to get used to it.”
Meanwhile, Emma Navarro also won her maiden ITF W60 title over the weekend at W60 Liepaja, securing her first tournament victory since leaving college to become a full-time pro.
Navarro, a former junior world No. 3, defeated China’s Yue Yuan 6-4 6-4 in the final of the Latvian tournament to add a second ITF title to her career haul following her win at W25 Orlando last November.
The 21-year-old American studied at the University of Virginia for two years but announced in June she would not be returning to college for a third year.
Navarro has hit the ground running since, winning 10 of her first 12 matches as a pro and reaching back-to-back finals on the ITF World Tennis Tour, finishing runner-up at W60 Amstelveen in the first week of July ahead of her victory in Latvia.
Earlier this month, Navarro spoke of her desire to follow in the footsteps of world No. 8 Danielle Collins, also a fellow alumnus of the University of Virginia. Watch the full video above.