TENNIS – ANASTASIA Tikhonova from Russia and Viktoria Hruncakova from Slovakia were last night crowned doubles champions in the W75 Manama Bahrain Open – the first-ever tournament to be hosted by the kingdom on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour Calendar.
Tikhonova and Hruncakova, the doubles’ sixth seeds, secured their title after defeating Polina Bakhmutkina from Belgium and Mina Hodzic from Germany 6-4, 6-3 in a tightly contested final, played at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
Following the contest, the two pairings were awarded their respective trophies by Bahrain Tennis Federation president Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa and other officials.
Meanwhile, Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands battled into the singles semi-finals yesterday.
Rus, the tournament’s third seed and world number 133, defeated eighth seed Carole Monnet from France 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in an exciting elite eight match. With her triumph, she set up a meeting with French qualifier Fiona Ferro, who was a winner by walkover yesterday against American Claire Liu.
The other contest in the final four will be between Alina Korneeva from Russia and Carol Young Suh Lee from the US.
Korneeva ousted Belgian fifth seed Sofia Costoulas 6-3, 6-1 while Suh Lee upset French sixth seed Jessika Ponchet in a tough three-setter 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
Today’s singles semi-finals are scheduled to begin at 12noon with Rus’s contest against Ferro. It will be followed by Korneeva and Suh Lee battling.
All are welcome to attend and watch the exciting matches at the Public Security Officers Club.
The W75 Manama Bahrain Open offers $60,000 in total prize money, and it features some of the world’s top women’s professional players with leading Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.
W75 tournaments on the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour offer 75 WTA ranking points to the singles winner. These competitions are in similar standing to a men’s ATP Challenger event within the international tennis structure.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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