Zhu sees off rising star Mandlik to win W100 Landisville title
Zhu Lin saw off rising American Elizabeth Mandlik to claim her second W100 title on the ITF World Tennis Tour in Landisville.
The 28-year-old Chinese player built on a promising fortnight at WTA level (in which she had reached round two at both Prague and Washington) by defeating Mandlik 6-2 6-3 in the final in Pennsylvania.
The win was Zhu’s third ITF title of the season, following her triumphs at W60+H Irapuato in March and W25 Monastir in April, and saw her add a second W100 title to her collection after her victory at W100 Shenzhen in 2019.
She also denied Mandlik the biggest title of her career in the 21-year-old’s first appearance in a W100 final.
Mandlik, the daughter of four-time Grand Slam winner Hana Mandlikova, has had a breakthrough month.
After being handed a wild card into qualifying at the WTA event in San Jose, the former junior world No. 17 went on to record wins over Fernanda Contreras Gomez, Jil Teichmann and Alison Riske, before narrowly falling to world No. 3 Paula Badosa in a decisive tie-break in the second round on the main draw.
Not bad for a player who hadn’t even hit with a Top 100 player prior to the tournament.
Mandlik carried that momentum into W100 Landisville last week, producing wins over Hanna Chang, Kristina Mladenovic, Katarzyna Kawa and Simona Waltert, before finally falling to Zhu in the title match.
Mandlik, who has collected three ITF title wins at W25 level this year, began the year just inside the Top 500. She has rocketed 346 places since January, and climbed to a new-career high of No. 143 in the world this week.
Talking of rising stars, Brenda Fruhvirtova won her fourth women’s title on the ITF World Tennis Tour on Sunday after defeating Mona Barthel 6-1 6-3 on Swedish soil at W25 Danderyd. Still just 15-years-old, the Czech has won four titles in the last seven tournaments she has contested at ITF pro level and becomes just the 10th player in ITF World Tennis Tour history to win four ITF women's titles before her 16th birthday.
There was also a notable triumph for Julia Grabher over the weekend, with the Austrian matching her career-best tournament result after defeating Nadia Podoroska in the title match at W60 San Bartolome (Gran Canaria).
The 26-year-old also won at W60 level in Bellinzona in April 2021.
Click here for all of the weekend's results from women's tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour