The WTA Tour featured two clay-court finals in Europe on Sunday. In an event played in Gstaad, Switzerland, Dutch national Kiki Bertens squared off against Anett Kontaveit. Meanwhile, in Bucharest, Romania home-country favorite Irina-Camelia Begu faced Germany's Julia Goerges. The championship matches are both over with Bertens and Begu victorious.
Bertens back into the top 30
Bertens, perhaps best known for making the 2016 french open semifinals, was pushed to a deciding set in the Gstaad final. However, the third set of her match against Kontaveit was not competitive as Bertens won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
When the rankings are updated on Monday morning, WTA tennis fans can expect Bertens to re-enter the top 30. Kontaveit is also a player with a lot of momentum at this point in her career as the 21-year-old from Estonia will also enter the top 30, in her case for the first time in her history. Speaking after the match, Bertens claimed she "was hungry" heading into Gstaad:
"It's just been an amazing week here...the court is good, all the facilities are good for me," Bertens said (qtd. by the WTA). "You can say I really like it here...I was hungry to come here and really go for it, and I was really happy that I could go one more step today. Every day was going a bit better, and today I think I played my best match of the week."
In Bucharest, Begu thrilled her home-country fans with a straight-sets victory over Goerges.
Begu had previously done well in clay-court events, but the victory in Bucharest was the first clay-court title of her career. The line score in the match was 6-3, 7-5 with Begu breaking Goerges to win the match at a crucial point in the 2nd set. The title will help make Begu relevant on tour again. Despite formerly sitting in the top 25, she had drifted in the rankings and entered Bucharest as the World No.
58. She should be in the top 40 on Monday following her impressive effort in Romania this last week.
Will they play in Bastad?
Both Begu and Bertens are in the Bastad draw at this point, another clay-court event that will be played in Sweden over the next week. Bertens, who is seeded 6th in Bastad, has to like her early-round draw.
However, Begu was placed beside French Open quarterfinalist Caroline Garcia in the first round. One of the hardest things to do on tour is to win back-to-back titles in back-to-back weeks. Most of the players in the Bastad draw are going to be better rested than both Bertens and Begu. That makes each player a withdrawal risk or candidate to go out early in Bastad. In the case of Begu, she is especially at risk of not doing well in Bastad as Garcia is the third seed and a big title threat.