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Alona
Bondarenko
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October,1. Ukrainian
Alona Bondarenko gained
her first WTA tour title, having won prestigious
tournament Fortis Championships with prize
money 600.000$ in Luxembourg last Sunday.
In the semifinals in stubborn fight she defeated
experienced Chech player Kveta Peschke 6-3,
5-7, 7-5. Struggling in the final set 2-5,
Alona saved a matchpoint and won 5 games in
a row to reach her second carrer WTA tour
Singles final . In the begining of the last
she lost to Sanya Mirza in the final of WTA
tournament in Hyderabad (Tier IV, prize
money 140.000 $) . This time, Ukrainian managed
to reach final of much more prestigious tournament
(last year Lindsay Davenport won this tournament,
in 2004 - Kim Klijsters). To Bondarenko's
credit, her little experience in playing finals
wasn't decisious and she brilliantly defeated
Franchesca Schiavone, 5th Seed Italian 6-3,
6-2 in the final of Fortis Championships .
By the way, Schiavone, ranked 14th at the
moment, and it was 8th final of WTA Tournaments
in her career.
Literally, day of yesterday can be counted as the
historical for Ukrainian tennis. For the first
time Since Natasha Medvedeva, representative
of Ukraine won WTA tour Singles title. It
was a long period of 13 years between the
last success of Medvedeva and first triumph
of Alona Bondarenko: in late 1993 Natasha
won TIER II tournament in Essen. Moreover,
this success allowed Alona to enter world
TOP-40 for the first time(33rd position).
This is The second best result in Ukraian
tennis. The highest rank of Medvedeva in world
rankings was 23rd place in World rankings..
Ukrainian wins at
Luxembourge
Alona Bondarenko blew past Francesca Schiavone,
63 62, to win the Tier II FORTIS Championships
title. The Italian is now 0-8 lifetime in
Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles finals..
Despite her 5'6" frame,
Alona Bondarenko proved to the FORTIS Championships
field throughout this past week that she sure
packs a lot of punch. The 22-year-old Ukrainian
polished off her maiden Sony Ericsson WTA
Tour singles title run with a 63 62 victory
against Francesca Schiavone, whose finals
jinx remained intact.
Bondarenko, ranked No.62 and unseeded at
the Tier II event, took it to the No.5-seeded
Schiavone with a dazzling display of power
on Sunday, closing her out in straight sets
in a few minutes past the one hour mark. She
maintained an 83% first serve percentage,
winning 80% of those points, and also broke
serve a total of five times during the match,
making it virtually impossible for her opponent
to grab any momentum at all. The Ukrainian
cracked down-the-line winners like it was
second nature.
"I didn't think about how it was a final,
and that I could win or lose; I just played,
and concentrated on every point," said
Bondarenko, who was a runner-up to Sania Mirza
in her only previous final, at Hyderabad last
year. "I concentrated a lot on my first
serve. Today, I just focused on my game and
nothing else."
"She played great," Schiavone said.
"She didn't give me a chance. She only
gave away three or four points in the match.
I was trying to find the solution, to try
and break her, come into the net, I did so
many things. But not so well I guess."
The title run comes as somewhat of a surprise,
considering Bondarenko hadn't even been beyond
the round of 16 at a tournament this size
all year long, let alone in her entire career.
But she came up with the wins all week, beating
No.8-seed Mary Pierce in her opener and notching
three set victories over fellow non-seeds
Katarina Srebotnik, Nathalie Dechy and Kveta
Peschke. She fended off a 5-2 deficit and
match point in the third set against Peschke,
to whom she had lost easily in their only
prior meeting.
To cap it all off with her fourth Top 20
victory was clearly the perfect ending.
"I'm very happy," said Bondarenko,
who also has wins over Tatiana Golovin and
Alicia Molik. "I hope it's not my last
title! Yesterday I was nervous with Peschke.
If I keep playing like I did here, it'll help
open doors for me. I'm playing well."
Source: Sony
Ericsson WTA tour official Site
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