Tennis News

After a week of firsts at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup, Cagla Buyakakcay created one more piece of history on Monday morning by becoming the first Turkish player to break the Top 100.

Bizarrely, given her assured play when under the spotlight, Buyakakcay had never previously won a match at her home event – a run stretching back a decade. But roused by the partisan crowd, the 26-year-old reeled off five in six days to become Turkey’s maiden WTA title winner.

Long the standard bearer for tennis in her homeland, two years ago in Kuala Lumpur Buyakakcay became the first Turk to reach a WTA quarterfinal. However, despite solid showings on the ITF Circuit, a double-digit ranking – not to mention a Grand Slam main draw debut – had proven elusive.

Until now, that is: “I wanted to cry after the match, because it’s very important for Turkish tennis. I will be in the Top 100, which will be the first time for Turkish tennis. Probably, I will also be in the main draw at Wimbledon for the first time in my career – and also in Turkish history. So that’s why I was so emotional at the end,” said Buyakakcay, who rose from No.118 to No.82 thanks to her triumph.

“For this I was very motivated because of the crowd. And I was very happy that there were so many kids, too, as they were so excited and sharing my excitement.”

Buyukakcay, though, is not the only player on the rise:

Laura Siegemund (+29, No.71 to No.42): Stuttgart finalists Angelique Kerber and Laura Siegemund may be separated by just a couple of months in age, but until recently they have existed in different worlds on the tennis circuit. Should the latter continue her recent form, this may not be the case for much longer. At the Porsche Arena she upset former Grand Slam finalists Simona Halep, Roberta Vinci and Agnieszka Radwanska before running out of gas against Kerber. Her reward was a career-high payday, 330 ranking points and a Top 50 debut.

Danka Kovinic (+13 No.60 to No.47): Danka Kovinic grew up idolizing fellow Balkan girl Jelena Jankovic. While she has some way to go if she is to emulate Jankovic’s feats, the future is looking bright. In Istanbul, she avoided the upset beg sweeping round her fellow seeds to reach the final, a run that has catapulted her back into the Top 50.

Anastasija Sevastova (+10, No.96 to No.86): In Istanbul, Anastasija Sevastova continued her slow but steady re-ascent up the ranks with another solid week, knocking out No.8 seed Johanna Larsson before falling to Kateryna Kozlova in the last eight.

CHARLESTON, SC, USA — Monica Puig was the first of two main draw winners as the Volvo Car Open got underway in Charleston on Monday, as Katerina Siniakova was forced to retire with a back injury in the final set.

Siniakova received medical attention earlier in the match, and retired as the match hit the two-hour mark, trailing 6-4, 2-6, 1-4 to send the Puerto Rican in to the second round.

“It’s always nice to come back and play on the clay again — unfortunately she had to retire there in the third set,” Puig said after the match. “I thought it was some pretty good, high-quality tennis up until that point.

“She was definitely holding, clutching her back a little bit there in the second set, so I was obviously a little bit aware something was going on. I had to try and keep focus because sometimes when a player is feeling a little bit of discomfort, they start hitting the ball hard, going for their shots a little more. I had to really focus and pay attention.”

Puig, who reached the third round in Charleston last season, fell behind early as Siniakova broke in the first game and rode the advantage to a one-set lead. She flipped the script in the second set, breaking Siniakova at the first opportunity to open up a 3-0 lead en route to sending the match to a decider. While the Czech fought through valiantly in the decider, she dropped serve in the fourth game and was unable to continue much further from there.

.@MonicaAce93 is first through to @VolvoCarOpen Second round!

Siniakova retires due to injury pic.twitter.com/xcJH4OUG9S

— WTA (@WTA) April 3, 2017

The Puerto Rican played her first WTA main draw in Charleston in 2011 after coming through qualifying and the World No.40 is eager to use one of her most successful tour stops as a springboard on the road to the French Open

“I love the clay. I really enjoy playing on it. Not so much the green clay because you don’t really notice that you’re on clay as much as the red clay — I love getting off the court and seeing I’m all dirty!” she joked.

“You don’t really have to change up your game style, but you have to adjust to what you have to do as far as tactics and things like that,” Puig assessed, as she’ll face the winner of the match between Daria Kasatkina and Danka Kovinic in the second round. “That’s what my coach and I were trying to work on coming into this clay season, just to really be smart of there.” 

Joining Puig in the second round as an early winner was Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who rallied for her first career main draw win in Charleston after dropping the first set against Johanna Larsson, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2.

Check out the rest of the opening round results here.