The first is seeded 3 and the second comes from the qualifying round after a spectacular tournament.
The Araba World Tennis Tour-Open Grupo Amutio already has its finalists After 30 matches played in the finals and 24 in qualifying, a total of 54 in singles, two players will fight this Sunday (12:00 pm, Eurosport 2 and Canal Youtube RFET) for the title in the capital of Alava.
The French Jessika Ponchet, seeded 3, will face the Swiss Jenny Duerst, the big surprise no doubt, as it comes from playing previous phase. The difference in their rankings is also important. The first is ranked 195 in the world and the second is ranked 500, something that may not have been very noticeable on the court, given the enormous equality that all the players have shown, falling to the first changes, the number 1 Zhu and number 2 Bucsa.
Ponchet defeated in the semifinals the Philippine Alexandra Eala by 6-4, 6-4. Elegant and confident on the court, she is one of the few players who does not use her two-handed backhand. With a good serve and good volley, she has been solid in the matches she has played in Vitoria, after eliminating Bondarenko (6-1, 6-2), Ku (6-1, 6-1), Liang (6-2, 7-6, 6-3). In other words, she has only dropped one set in the whole tournament.
For her part, the Swiss Duerst is the revelation player. She has overcome the Spanish Eva Guerrero (7-5, 7-5) in a tough semifinal but she always controlled taking the initiative and taking advantage of her second serve. A player who hits hard and who runs the ball a lot on the court. She has two more matches than her rival, those corresponding to the previous phase. Perhaps she can feel it in her legs as temperatures are expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius on Sunday. Duerst, in the qualifying round, overcame Marthiens (6-0, 6-2) and Olivia Gram (6-1, 6-0). Two impeccable clashes to face a final phase in which she started with the first surprise after beating the number 4 seed, the Australian Lizette Cabrera, coming back from a set down to win the match (3-6, 6-3, 6-4). She went on to beat Denmark’s Olga Helmi in two sets (6-3, 6-1) in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals, she did the same against the Hungarian Adrienn Nagy (6-2, 6-3), to reach the semifinals where she beat Eva Guerrero.
Both, whatever happens in the final, will achieve their best WTA ranking, given the points they will earn in this tournament. Ponchet managed to be ranked 169th in 2019.
Ioana Rosca and Maria Bondarenko, doubles champions.
The doubles final offered a great show on the Amutio center court of the Peña Vitoriana Tenis Club. A priori, the couple formed by the Dutch Isabelle Haverlag and the Lithuanian Justyna Mikulskyte, seeded 3, started as favorites. They started the match in command to take the first set 6-4, but their rivals managed to balance the match by returning the set 6-4. The final was decided in the tie-break by 9-11. This is the first ITF doubles title in their careers. Rosca is ranked 200 in doubles while her partner Bondarenko is 387.