Third time the charm for teen Fruhvirtova
Linda Fruhvirtova claimed the first ITF World Tennis Tour titles of her fledgling career at W15 Monastir, where the 15-year-old claimed both the singles and doubles crowns.
The Czech teenager, who reached her first career final at the Tunisian resort in December 2020 before finishing runner-up at W25 Hamburg last month, triumphed without dropping a set all week for her third singles final appearance, beating France’s Manon Arcangioli 7-6(5) 7-5.
Fruhvirtova also won doubles title alongside Russia’s Maria Timofeeva – also a career-first – beating Nina Radovanovic of France and Georgia’s Sopiko Tsitskishvili 6-1 6-2 in the final.
It was a good week for the junior cohort on the ITF World Tennis Tour, with 2019 US Open girls’ singles semi-finalist and doubles champion Oksana Selekhmeteva clinching her first pro title at W15 Manacor, the third early-season tournament staged at the Rafa Nadal Academy.
Like Fruhvirtova, the Russian 18-year-old - a Junior Reserved entrant - also sailed through the draw without dropping a set, beating fellow rising star Alexandra Eala in the quarter-finals en route to her first career final, where she eased to a 6-3 6-2 victory over Netherlands’ Suzan Lamens.
Sofia Costoulas, another Junior Reserved entrant, reached the W15 Sharm-El-Sheikh final but came up short against fellow Belgian Magali Kempen, who prevailed 6-3 6-4. Of her eight career titles, Kempen’s last five have come at Sharm-El-Sheikh: the first in 2017 followed by a hat-trick in 2019.
Miriam Bianca Bulgaru ended her three-year trophy drought at W15 Antalya, where she defeated South Korea’s Sohyun Park 6-2 6-3 in the final.
“The best way to enjoy a Sunday morning!” the 22-year-old Romanian posted on Instagram after clinching her fourth clay-court title. “Wanna thank everybody who is helping me out in achieving my dreams. It means a lot!”
Belarus’s Yuliya Hatouka continued her rich vein of recent form, the 20-year-old beating Russia’s Anastasia Tikhonova 7-5 6-2 to claim the W15 Shymkent title, the eighth of her career and first since a hat-trick of titles at Monastir in 2020.