Third time the charm for teen Fruhvirtova | ITF

Third time the charm for teen Fruhvirtova

Michael Beattie

08 Feb 2021

Linda Fruhvirtova claimed the first ITF World Tennis Tour titles of her fledgling career at W15 Monastir, where the 15-year-old claimed both the singles and doubles crowns.

The Czech teenager, who reached her first career final at the Tunisian resort in December 2020 before finishing runner-up at W25 Hamburg last month, triumphed without dropping a set all week for her third singles final appearance, beating France’s Manon Arcangioli 7-6(5) 7-5.

Fruhvirtova also won doubles title alongside Russia’s Maria Timofeeva – also a career-first – beating Nina Radovanovic of France and Georgia’s Sopiko Tsitskishvili 6-1 6-2 in the final.

It was a good week for the junior cohort on the ITF World Tennis Tour, with 2019 US Open girls’ singles semi-finalist and doubles champion Oksana Selekhmeteva clinching her first pro title at W15 Manacor, the third early-season tournament staged at the Rafa Nadal Academy.

Like Fruhvirtova, the Russian 18-year-old - a Junior Reserved entrant - also sailed through the draw without dropping a set, beating fellow rising star Alexandra Eala in the quarter-finals en route to her first career final, where she eased to a 6-3 6-2 victory over Netherlands’ Suzan Lamens.

Sofia Costoulas, another Junior Reserved entrant, reached the W15 Sharm-El-Sheikh final but came up short against fellow Belgian Magali Kempen, who prevailed 6-3 6-4. Of her eight career titles, Kempen’s last five have come at Sharm-El-Sheikh: the first in 2017 followed by a hat-trick in 2019.

Miriam Bianca Bulgaru ended her three-year trophy drought at W15 Antalya, where she defeated South Korea’s Sohyun Park 6-2 6-3 in the final.

“The best way to enjoy a Sunday morning!” the 22-year-old Romanian posted on Instagram after clinching her fourth clay-court title. “Wanna thank everybody who is helping me out in achieving my dreams. It means a lot!”

Belarus’s Yuliya Hatouka continued her rich vein of recent form, the 20-year-old beating Russia’s Anastasia Tikhonova 7-5 6-2 to claim the W15 Shymkent title, the eighth of her career and first since a hat-trick of titles at Monastir in 2020.

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