W100 Shrewsbury title gives Golubic Billie Jean King Cup Finals boost
Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic continued her blistering form ahead of the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals by justifying her top seed status and clinching victory at W100 Shrewsbury.
Golubic was imperious during the final itself and ruthlessly dispatched 21-year-old Briton Amarni Banks, 6-0 6-0, to claim her second W100 title of the season having also triumphed at W100 Tokyo in September.
W100s are the highest classification of women’s event on the ITF World Tennis Tour and success in Shrewsbury has catapulted the 31-year-old to No. 83 in the WTA Rankings having returned to the Top 100 earlier this month.
Victory in Shrewsbury also made it back-to-back tournament wins after Golubic scooped the third WTA 125 singles title of her career by overpowering Erika Andreeva in the final at Rouen seven days earlier.
Golubic’s attention will soon turn to the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, which take place at Seville’s Estadio de La Cartuja from 7-12 November, as her nation Switzerland bid to defend their crown.
In the aftermath of her Shrewsbury win, Golubic was also keen to look further ahead and focus on the foundations she has laid to ensure her 2024 season begins with a place in the Australian Open main draw.
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“This means a lot,” said Golubic. “I have now won two titles in a row, and it’s been such a brilliant two weeks. It helps me to get into the Australian Open main draw and obviously that is a big goal for me.
“The final was incredible because I was really solid, flawless really, for which my experience maybe helped. I think probably it was her [Banks’] first big final, so I had to stay really strong.
“It wasn’t as easy as the result looked, but I was just on the gas pedal all the time and I didn’t give away any points. She had some break points, and I was really happy I could save them. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
Elsewhere on the ITF World Tennis Tour, China’s Bai Zhuoxuan is on the cusp of breaking the Top 100 after claiming the biggest title of her career at W100 Shenzhen. The 20-year-old is now ranked a career-high No. 105 in the WTA Rankings.
Bai dropped just one set throughout the event, against Canada’s Carol Zhao in the semi-finals, and was in commanding mood in the final as she defeated fellow home favourite Yue Yuan 7-6(5) 6-2.
By triumphing in Shenzhen, the 20-year-old has become the seventh Chinese woman after Zhang Shuai, Peng Shuai, Wang Xinyu, Zheng Saisai, Zhu Lin and Zhang Kai-Lin to win an ITF World Tennis Tour title at W100 level.
Being the main artery to the ATP and WTA Tours, ITF World Tennis Tour launches and advances the careers of players all around the world and that principle was very much in evidence over the weekend with some striking storylines.
Morocco’s Aya El Aouni, for instance, won her first ITF World Tennis Tour title at W15 Heraklion. The only Moroccan woman to have won an ITF World Tennis Tour title at a younger age than 18-year-old El Aouni is Bahia Mouhtassine, who claimed two titles in 1997.
Gloriana Nahum, meanwhile, reached the final at W15 Monastir where she fell to Hina Inoue of the United States. By reaching the final, Nahum became the first Beninese woman to reach a singles final at any level of professional tennis.
Click here for a full list of results from the ITF World Tennis Tour
Photo credit: Richard Dawson