TENNIS – ALINA Korneeva from Russia set up a mouth-watering showdown with Fiona Ferro from France for the singles title 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.
Korneeva, the world number 212, battled back from a set down to oust 210th-ranked Carol Young Suh Lee from the US 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a hugely exciting semi-final clash at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
Meanwhile, Ferro, the world number 369, took down third seed Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands, who is ranked 133rd internationally by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), 7-6 (3), 6-3. Eighteen-year-old Korneeva and 28-year-old Ferro are scheduled to lock horns for the tournament crown at 1pm today at the same venue. All are welcome to attend and watch the exciting match.
Korneeva and Ferro are looking to join Anastasia Tikhonova from Russia and Viktoria Hruncakova from Slovakia as champions in this historic competition. Tikhonova and Hruncakova have already secured the doubles crown after beating opponents Polina Bakhmutkina from Belgium and Mina Hodzic in the doubles final on Friday night.
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 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.
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