VALENCIA — Egyptian Mayar Sherif, the top seed, won against Argentinian Nadia Podoroska, the No 8 seed, 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the final of the Valencia Open at the Valencia Tennis Club.
Sherif, ranked No 40, will now play Spaniard Marina Bassols Ribera in the final.
Ribera advanced to the final by beating German Tamara Korpatsch 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the Valencia Tennis Club.
Ahead of her victory, the Egyptian defeated Chilean lucky loser Daniela Seguel (6-0, 6-1), Argentinian Maria Lourdes Carle (6-2, 6-1) and American qualifier Ann Li (6-1, 6-2).
Podoroska, ranked No 94, defeated Spanish wildcard Angela Fita Boluda (6-2, 4-6, 7-5), Frenchwoman Leolia Jeanjean (W/O) and Swede Mirjam Bjorklund (6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the BBVA Open.
Last week, Sherif prevailed in a mammoth battle in the WTA 125 Makarska Open final in Croatia , saving six championship points in a 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 victory over No.2 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy.
In a showdown between two of the most successful performers at WTA 125 tournaments, it was World No.54 Sherif who triumphed in just under three hours in her first meeting with Paolini, ranked one spot higher at No.53.
Sherif improves her perfect record in WTA 125 finals to 5-0. This is the Egyptian’s first WTA 125 title of this year after winning three of those titles last season and another in 2021. Paolini, meanwhile, is now a two-time winner and a two-time runner-up at WTA 125 events.
Sherif trailed 6-2, 5-2 in the match, and stared down three championship points on her serve at 5-4. The Egyptian mixed in winning passes and drop shots to drag the set into a tiebreak, but Paolini fired an error-forcing forehand to garner two more championship points at 6-4 in the breaker.
However, Sherif erased those as well, and she fired another deft drop shot to lead 7-6 and grab her first set point. There, Sherif slammed a backhand winner to level the match at one set apiece.
Sherif faced a sixth championship point down 5-3 in the third set, but she fired a passing winner to erase Paolini’s last chance. Sherif then broke for 5-5 on her fifth break point of that lengthy game, and she eased to her fifth career WTA 125 title from there, winning the last four games in succession.
As for the Spaniard, Ribera won against wildcard Charo Esquiva Banuls (6-2, 6-2), lucky loser Guiomar Maristany Zuleta De Reales (6-4, 6-4) and Italian Sara Errani, the No 3 seed (7-6 (7), 6-4).
Korpatsch, ranked No 124, beat Swiss Ylena In-Albon (6-1, 6-2), American Caroline Dolehide (6-1, 6-3) and Spanish wildcard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (6-1, 6-3) in the previous rounds of the BBVA Open.
Boulter, Burrage set all-British final in Nottingham
Katie Boulter beat Heather Watson in an all-British semi-final at the Nottingham Open to book a spot in her first career WTA Tour singles final.
A dream week for home favorites at the Rothesay International Nottingham got even better as Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage set up the first all-British final on the Hologic WTA Tour for the first time in 46 years.
In the first all-British Hologic WTA Tour semi-final since 1975, Boulter downed Heather Watson, another Brit, in straight sets to reach her first-ever tour-level singles final, and Burrage followed with a 7-5, 7-5 win over former Top 20 Alizé Cornet in the second semifinal to match Boulter’s accomplishment.
At World No.126 and No.131, respectively, Boulter and Burrage are the fifth and fourth-lowest ranked finallists at a grass-court WTA event since 1985. In the last all-British final in 1977, Sue Barker beat Virginia Wade in San Francisco.
Elsewhere, no.1 seed Veronika Kudermetova reached her first Hologic WTA Tour singles final in over a year by defeating Viktoria Hruncakova 6-3, 6-2 in the Libéma Open semi-finals.
“It was not easy, because Viktoria, she played really well, she played very aggressive,” Kudermetova said, after her win. “I think it was really important to stay focused and stay aggressive in the match.”
Kudermetova’s final opponent in the WTA 250 grass-court event will be No.4 seed and defending champion Ekaterina Alexandrova, who outlasted No.7 seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 7-6(1) in other semi-final.
Kudermetova leads her head-to-head with Alexandrova by 2-1 overall. But Alexandrova’s win in their head-to-head came in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last year, when she beat Kudermetova in the semi-finals en route to the title.
“[Alexandrova] plays very aggressive, especially on the grass, it’s not easy,” Kudermetova said. “But the final, it’s kind of another extra tournament, and I will try to stay focused and try to play my best tennis.”
Coming into this week, World No.14 Kudermetova had already reached four semifinals this year, including at WTA 1000 clay-court events in Madrid and Rome. However, Kudermetova had lost all four of those semi-final matches. Prior to this week, her most recent final came in April of 2022 at Istanbul.
