At this week’s WTA 125 events, accepting a wild-card in France worked out perfectly for Naomi Osaka, while Dalma Galfi and Bianca Andreescu picked up titles in Spain.
Kinda ironic to win my first trophy back on the surface that I thought was my worst. That’s one of my favourite things about life though, there’s always room to grow and evolve. Thanks to everyone accompanying me on this journey, I know it’s turbulent but it’s also really fun and I’m grateful. Naomi OsakaSaint-Malo, France | WTA 125 L’Open 35 de Saint Malo
Former World No 1 Naomi Osaka dropped down a level to boost both her confidence and her ranking after an early defeat at the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open, and wound up with her first clay court trophy after ending a 4-year title drought at the WTA 125 Challenger event in Saint-Malo.
“We decided to play a smaller tournament this week, we are in Saint-Malo in France,” Patrick Mouratoglou, Osaka’s coach, said. “She really needs to play matches. For the last six to eight months she has been injured a lot, so, unfortunately, she hasn’t been able to play enough.
“We feel it’s the thing that she needs the most now. We had three weeks of intensive practice on clay, so she is ready to play.”
This was not Osaka’s first WTA 125 final, as she finished runner-up to Yaroslava Shvedova at WTA 125 Hua Hin in 2015, nine-and-a-half years ago.
The 27-year old Japanese took a wild-card and sealed her return to the Top 50 of the WTA Rankings after defeating Kaja Juvan, 6-1 7-5, in Sunday’s final to claim the title, rallying from a break down in the second set to close out the match.
It is the 4-times Grand Slam champion’s first-ever title on clay courts at any level, while it is also her first title since winning her second Australian Open crown in February 2021.
Osaka’s decision to enter the WTA 125 event came after a disappointing start to her clay season at the Madrid Open, beaten in her opening-round match by Lucia Bronzetti.
Now she has won 5 straight clay-court matches on the trot, beating Petra Marcinko and Diane Parry before a quarter-final win versus Elsa Jacquemot and a semi-final triumph over Leolia Jeanjean.
Osaka dropped one set apiece to French hopes Parry and Jeanjean, but, otherwise, she moved through the draw smoothly enough, making it 5 with her triumph over Juvan, who is also looking to make her way back towards the upper echelons of the WTA Tour.
Juvan is a former Top 100 player, who ended a 12-month hiatus from tour in January and has already reached a WTA 125 final.
The 24-year-old Slovenian entered on a protected ranking, dispatched 3 seeded opponents before falling to Osaka in the final.
“Kinda ironic to win my first trophy back on the surface that I thought was my worst,” wrote Osaka on social media. “That’s one of my favourite things about life though, there’s always room to grow and evolve. Thanks to everyone accompanying me on this journey, I know it’s turbulent but it’s also really fun and I’m grateful.”
Her triumph on Sunday means that she earns 100 points and will rise 7 spots to World No 48 on Monday, with Emma Raducanu among those affected, who stays at No 49.
There is also good news for runner-up Juvan, who will move up 159 places to World No 356 thanks to her run to the final.
Osaka will next be in action at the Italian Open in Rome, with the women’s singles draw set to be revealed on Monday.
The Saint Malo doubles title was won by Britain’s Maia Lumsden & Makoto Ninomiya from Japan, the No 1 seeds, who beat No 2 seeds Oksana Kalashnikova & Angelica Moratelli, 7-5 6-2, in Saturday’s final.
Dalma Galfi swept past Rebeka Masarova to lift the Catalonia Open WTA 125 title on Sunday at Vic, Spain
cataloniaopen.com
Vic, Spain | Catalonia Open WTA 125
Hungary’s Dalma Galfi had never won a WTA 125 title until she hoisted the trophy at Oeiras last month, and now she has won 2, and extended her winning streak up to 10.
On Saturday, Galfi swept past Rebeka Masarova of Switzerland, 6-3 6-0, to win the Catalonia Open title after a dominant week in which she did not lose more than 4 games in a set during her run through the draw.
A World No 1 junior a decade ago, Dale is arguably in the hottest form of her professional career, as 3 weeks ago she was ranked 149, and she is now projected to return to the Top 100 in Monday’s updated PIF WTA Rankings.
Meanwhile, another Grand Slam champion also took a wild-card and ended it with a title, with 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu from Canada pairing up with Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi to win the doubles title.
Andreescu & Sutjiadi defeated Kiwi Lulu Sun and yet another Grand Slam finalist, Leylah Fernandez, 6-2 6-4, in Friday’s Catalonia Open doubles final.
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