Van Uytvanck claims first grass court crown in Nottingham
Alison Van Uytvanck claimed her first career grass court title on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W100 Nottingham to firmly turn the corner on a challenging 2021 season.
The 27-year-old Belgian, making her first ITF tournament appearance since August 2019, defeated Australian Arina Rodionova 6-0 6-4 to win her 17th career singles title – and her 12th at ITF level.
Van Uytvanck’s triumph follows her quarter-final run at the WTA International event in Nottingham the previous week, when she recorded back-to-back match-wins for the first time in 15 months.
“It’s nice to go home with the trophy,” said Van Uytvanck. “I’ve been here for two weeks and I really loved it here. I’m happy with the way I played especially in the first set. I think it was a really good match.”
Van Uytvanck entered the grass court swing on a six-match losing streak dating back to the Australian Open, having undergone right knee surgery in February, and struggled to find her feet on clay on her return to the tour in late April.
Her fortunes have turned around in Nottingham, even if she had to overcome the tricky task of playing her fiancé, Greet Minnen, in the quarter-finals last week – their first competitive match since they announced their engagement.
Monica Niculescu and Elena Gabriela Ruse won the doubles event after beating Australian pair Priscilla Hon and Storm Sanders 7-5 7-5. Despite a richly successful career that has taken in 23 singles and 32 doubles titles, 33-year-old Niculescu’s doubles triumph was just her second career title on a grass court – adding to her singles win at W100 Ilkley back in 2019.
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Qinwen Zheng won her biggest title yet on Czech clay at W60 Stare Splavy after overcoming Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic 7-6(5) 6-3 in the final.
Zheng’s victory was her sixth at ITF level, having claimed an impressive four titles last year before following with a fifth at W25 Hamburg in January.
The tournament was also notable for the performance of newly-crowned Roland Garros girls’ singles champion Linda Noskova, 16, who reached the semi-finals at a tournament above W15 level for the first time before running in to Zheng.
There were seven other women's titlists on the ITF World Tennis Tour last week, with wins for Peyton Stearns (USA), Ilona Georgiana Ghioroaie (ROU), Amandine Hesse (FRA), Dalma Galfi (HUN), Darya Astakhova (RUS), Tessah Andrianjafitrimo (FRA) and Mell Elizabeth Reasco Gonzalez (ECU).
The action continues this week with eight women’s tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour, headlined by W60 Charleston. Follow the action live here.