Anna Bondár is not a singles finalist, but a doubles finalist in Budapest –
Anna Bondár, seeded second, lost in Friday’s semi-final of the women’s challenger tournament on clay courts with a total prize of 115,000 dollars (45.4 million forints) taking place at the Rome Tennis Academy, but she can play in the doubles final.
52nd in the world ranking, Anna Bondár entered the field as a paid player and the only seed for the semi-finals Tamara Korpatsch against. The career peak of the 118th opponent in the WTA ranking was the 104th position, and so far she has only triumphed in smaller ITF tournaments.
In their balance against each other, the German tennis player was better, as he defeated Bondár in an ITF tournament in Székesfehérvár in 2019 and in Gdynia last year.
In the third battle, the sides reached 4:4 with two breaks each. First, the player from Hamburg, who showed amazing drops, performed smaller “private numbers” between the ball sessions. Sometimes he said that everyone was against him, sometimes he covered his ears and tried to exclude the audience’s applause. At 5:4, the Hungarian tennis player became uncertain as a server, then at 5:6 the 27-year-old opponent served for the game and took advantage of his fourth set point, thus gaining the advantage after 74 minutes.
The second act is also competitive and starts with long ball sessions, only in the first boom you could see 14 points in an audience of about 150 people. The serve did not mean an immediate advantage in the continuation either, five breaks followed, in the penultimate one Korpatsch could not serve out the match, and then the 25-year-old Bondár also lost his serve, which was already in the match. The meeting lasted 2 hours and 8 minutes.
The Hajdúszoboszló SE athlete came off the bench bitterly and did not want to comment.
However, she and her partner, Kimberley Zimmermann, later reached the doubles final, as they defeated the Russian pair of Angelina Gabujeva and Anastasia Zaharova in a game.
The first-placed Hungarian and Belgian duo triumphed over their third-ranked rival in 1 hour and 2 minutes in Friday’s semi-final.
WTA 125 TOURNAMENT, BUDAPEST ($115,000, clay)
SINGLE, PRELIMINARY
Tamara Korpatsch (German)–Anna Bondár (2nd) 7:5, 6:4
Viktoria Tomova (Bulgaria) – Océane Dodin (France) 4:6, 6:3, 4:1 Dodin gave up
DOUBLE, PRE-FINAL
Jesika Malecková, Renata Vorácová (Czech Republic)–Tímea Babos, Tamara Zidansek (Hungarian, Slovenian, 2nd) 6:3, 3:6, 10–6 – final cut
Anna Bondár, Kimberley Zimmermann (Hungarian, Belgian, 1st)–Angelina Gabujeva, Anastasia Zaharova (Russian, 3rd) 6:3, 6:3
WTA TOKYO
Cheng Ching-wen was the last to reach the top four at the hard-court women’s tennis tournament in Tokyo, with a total prize money of 758,000 dollars (303 million forints).
The Chinese player bid farewell to the American Claire Liu in two sets, making it the first time in her career to reach the semifinals in a 500 tournament.
At this time last year, the 19-year-old Cseng was only 156th in the world rankings, but this year he already won a tournament in Valencia, was in the round of 16 at Roland Garros, and is currently ranked 36th.
WTA 500 TOKYO ($757,900, hard)
WOMEN’S SINGLE
QUARTER FINAL
Cheng Qin-wen (China)-Liu (American) 6:4, 7:5
Earlier
Samsonova (Russia) – Muguruza (Spain, 3rd) 6:4, 6:2
Kugyermetova (Russia, 4th)-Haddad Maia (Brazil, 5th) 6:7 (4–7), 7:6 (8–6), 6:1
Zhang Suai (Chinese) – Martic (Croatian) 7:5, 6:2
PRELIMINARY
Kugyermetova–Cheng Chin-wen
Samsonova–Zhang Suai
ATP METZ
Hubert Hurkacz, the defending champion from Poland, defeated Arthur Rinderknech, who played in front of the home crowd, in two straight games in the Friday quarter-finals of the €534,000 (HUF 216 million) hard-court men’s tennis tournament in Metz.
ATP-250 TOURNAMENT, METZ (€534,000, hard court)
MALE SINGLE
QUARTER FINAL
Hurkacz (Poland, 2nd) – Rinderknech (France) 6:3, 6:2
Sonego (Italian) – Korda (American) 6:4, 6:4
Wawrinka (Swiss)–M. Ymer (Sweden) 6:4, 4:6, 7:6 (7–5)
Later
Runa (Danish, 4th)–Bublik (Kazakh, 7th)