World Tennis Tour sees 15 first-time champions before March
Fifteen players have experienced the high of winning their first professional singles title on the ITF World Tennis Tour so far this year.
Two months into the 2020 tennis season, a total of 11 women and four men have collected maiden titles on the Tour to date – one more, overall, than at the same stage last year, when seven men and seven women had become first-time professional titlists by the turn of March.
Turkish player Zeynep Sonmez, 17, was the first player of the new decade to become a first-time champion by virtue of her triumph at the W15 Antalya tournament in the first week of January.
"I love to play tennis,” enthused Sonmez, who would have doubled her title tally last week but for defeat to Eleonora Molinaro in the final of another W15 tournament in Antalya on 1 March.
“I am very glad to win the first tournament of the season and my first professional trophy helped me to gain great experience and more trust for my future,” she added. “I have plan to be in top 200 by end of the year."
The first male player to win a maiden professional singles title came two weeks later – also in Turkey - when Timofei Skatov won at the M15 Antalya tournament. That same day a further four female players around the globe celebrated becoming tournament champions for the first time.
Among those winners was 17-year-old German Mina Hodzic, who continued her comeback from a long injury lay-off by battling through three rounds of qualifying to win her first pro title in her first final at the W25 Manacor tournament in Spain.
"I’m very happy to win my first ITF title after a long injury," said Hodzic, who had played just one competitive match, in a September qualifying encounter in Great Britain, since May 2019.
Turkey has played host to the most first-time champions to date this year with four, all in Antalya, while France, Germany and USA have all seen two players from their nations become first-time winners.
The two American title winners were Alexa Noel and Strong Kirchheimer who, at 17 and 24 respectively, represent the youngest (Noel was one of three 17-year-olds to claim a title) and oldest of the 15 champions after their titles at the W15 and M15 tournaments in Cancun.
First-time winners on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2020
Women
Zeynep Sonmez
Alexa Noel
Valeriya Olyanovskaya
Elza Tomase
Lucie Wargnier
Mina Hordzic
Anastasia Zolotareva
Anna Siskova
Clara Burel
Eri Shimizu
Eva Lys
Men
Timofei Skatov
Strong Kirchheimer
Giovanni Fonio
Aziz Kiljametovic