Cirstea claims first singles title in five years at W100 Dubai
Sorana Cirstea won her first professional singles title in almost five years after defeating Katerina Siniakova in the final at W100+H Dubai.
The world No. 84 defeated Siniakova - ranked 22 spots above her - 4-6 6-3 6-3 in the final of the ITF World Tennis Tour event to make a long-awaited return to the winner's circle.
“It’s been an absolute privilege to play tennis in such tough and testing times,” the 30-year-old Romanian told Gulf News. “It’s been a great week for me and hopefully I will be back to defend my title here next year.”
Cirstea’s triumph marked a rare high point in a 2020 season that had seen her win back-to-back main draw matches on just one other occasion – in a third round run at September’s US Open.
Cirstea collected her ninth ITF singles title and 10th career singles title overall (she also won a WTA crown at Tashkent in 2008), but her first since she won a 25k ITF title in Bertioga, Brazil in January 2016.
She now has three ITF W100-level titles in her trophy collection – adding the Dubai crown to her wins at $100k+H tournaments on French clay in Saint Malo and Cagnes-Sur-Mer in 2011.
A former top 30 player, Cirstea reached a career-high No. 21 in the world in August 2013 and is a Grand Slam quarter-finalist, having reached the last eight at Roland Garros in 2009.
Indian Ankita Raina and Georgia’s Ekaterine Gorgodze won the Dubai doubles crown earlier on Saturday after seeing off Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov and Kaja Juvan 6-4 3-6 10-6.
“It’s been an unreal week,” said Raina. “We were the last ones to enter the doubles, and here we are with the winners’ trophy in what I consider to be my home event.”
Raina collected her third doubles title of 2020 following two wins at W25 events in Nonthaburi with Bibiane Schoofs, while Gorgodze won her first title of the year – and the biggest of her career.
W100+H Dubai was the fifth and final W100-level tournament to take place on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2020 from the 19 that were originally on the calendar before most were thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cirstea’s fellow W100 singles winners in 2020 include Shelby Rogers at Midland, Olga Govortsova at Nicholasville, Irina-Camelia Begu at Cairo and Mayar Sherif at Charleston.
Meanwhile, Romania were denied any hope of a second women’s titlist on the ITF World Tennis Tour over the weekend after the W15 Antalya final was washed out due to rain.
Andreea Amalia Rosca had been seeking her fourth title of the year ahead of her match against 17-year-old Russia’s Polina Kudermetova, but both players had to make do with runner-up points.
Carolina Meligeni Rodrigues continued her strong run of form in Egypt, winning her second title in three weeks at W15 Cario.
The 24-year-old Brazilian, who has won 14 of her 15 matches during her stay in Cairo having also finished a runner-up at the event last week, won her fifth ITF singles title after defeating Russian Elina Avanesyan 6-0 7-5 in the final.
There was a double triumph for Switzerland – with 29-year-old Conny Perrin and 19-year-old Lulu Sun winning singles titles at W15 Madrid and W15 Monastir, respectively.
Perrin defeated Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4 7-6(8) in the Spanish capital to win her 13th TF title overall – and first since she won at a $25k event in Lagos in October 2017 – while qualifier Sun won her third career title and first of the year.