Tan claims biggest title yet - and a place in the Top 200
Harmony Tan celebrated her biggest title yet - and broke in to the top 200 for the first time - after winning the title on home soil at W60 Andrezieux-Boutheon.
The 23-year-old Frenchwoman collected her seventh title on the ITF World Tennis Tour after defeating Romanian Jaqueline Adina Cristian 3-6 6-2 6-1 in the final. It was her first tournament triumph in nearly two and a half years, and her first above the $25k prize money bracket.
Tan has enjoyed a strong start to 2021, having only narrowly missed out on a main draw berth at the Australian Open for the first time after falling in the final round of the qualifying event in Dubai in January. She scored impressive wins over Americans Allie Kiick and Caty McNally, before Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto denied her a fourth main draw Grand Slam appearance.
Tan, who went into last week’s hard court tournament ranked No. 235, climbed 43 places on Monday to a career-high No. 192.
Irene Burillo Escorihuela also enjoyed a week to remember at the other W60 event to take place last week – winning her third ITF title as a qualifier on American soil at W60 Rome.
The 23-year-old Spaniard needed a deciding tie-break to get through her opening encounter in qualifying, but ultimately carried that confidence all the way through to the final.
She defeated American Grace Min 1-6 7-6(4) 6-1 in the title match in her fifth three-setter of the week to win her first title since 2017 – and her first above $15k level.
Slovak Chantal Skamlova also collected her first title since 2017 at W15 Cairo over the weekend, defeating American Anastasia Nefedova 6-4 5-7 6-4 in the title match a month after finishing runner-up at the same venue.
Simone Waltert won her fifth career title at W15 Manacor. The 20-year-old Swiss overcame Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers 6-2 7-6(4) in the final a week after falling to the Spaniard in the quarter-finals at the same venue.
The W15 event in Antalya was delayed at the quarter-final stage after rain continued to hamper the tournament’s progress. Brazilian Carolina Meligeni Rodrigues Alves was the highest-ranked player still in contention for the title on Monday.