Former junior Wimbledon champ Snigur claims W100 Dubai title
Daria Snigur rocketed 39 places to a career-high No. 144 in the WTA rankings after collecting her biggest title yet on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W100+H Dubai.
A losing finalist at the tournament in 2019, the 19-year-old Ukrainian battled through three-set matches against Xinyu Wang, Viktoria Kuzmova and Anastasia Gasanova to earn another shot at the final, where she breezed past Slovak Kristina Kucova 6-3 6-0 to claim the sixth ITF singles crown of her fledgling career.
“I was nervous at the start as that loss of 2019 was popping up in my mind,” Snigur admitted. “Then surprisingly I found that Kristina too wasn’t playing easy, and that’s when I got my confidence and I took my chances and went for my shots.”
Snigur, the 2019 girls’ singles champion at Wimbledon and a former junior world No. 2, made her first big statement on her transition to the professional realm with the triumph. All five of her previous ITF title wins had come at either W25-level or below – including her only other title this year, at W25 Poitiers, France in February.
“For me this win is so huge,” she said. “Dubai is a place I have considered my home as most of the good things have happened to me right here. Next year I want to return here for the Dubai Open and see where I stand among the bigger players.”
Panna Udvardy also achieved a milestone win over the weekend, breaking into the Top 100 for the first at No. 96 after securing her biggest title yet at W60 Brasilia.
The 23-year-old Hungarian defeated Russian Elina Avanesyan 0-6 6-4 6-3 for her fifth ITF singles title of the year – and ninth of her career – to continue a fine run of form on clay.
Udvardy has won 21 of her last 24 matches and reached three successive finals, with her win on Sunday making up for runner-up defeats at a W25 tournament in Brazil and a WTA 125k series event in Montevideo.
Like Snigur, Udvardy was also a promising junior player – reaching a career-high of No. 15 in the girls’ rankings back in 2016.
Elsewhere, 17-year-old Linda Noskova was back amongst the titles, continuing her hugely impressive transition from junior tennis with her fourth ITF women’s title of the year at W25 Milovice.
The 2021 Roland Garros girls’ singles champion won her second title on Czech soil after beating compatriot Nikola Bartunkova – who is also carving out a reputation as a future star after impressively reaching her first ITF singles final as a qualifier aged just 15.
The youthful success continued in Greece, where current junior world No. 21, Michaela Laki, a 16-year-old Greek, won her first pro title at W15 Heraklion.
There were also ITF title wins for Carson Branstine, Susan Bandechhi, Hurricane Tyra Black, Jazmin Ortenzi, Sonay Kartal, Polina Kudermetova, Yeonwoo Ku and Raveena Kingsley.
The ITF World Tennis Tour continues this week with 11 further tournaments. Follow all the latest scores and streams here.