Last year Bojana Jovanovski won her maiden WTA title at the Baku Cup in Azerbaijan, but this time her appearance at the event was cut short already in the second round by a Tunisian wildcard Ons Jabeur. The 37th-ranked Jovanovski was the top seed at the $235,000 tournament, but her world No.204 opponent lost just two points in the first four games of the match and came back from behind in the second set to clinch a 6-2 7-5 victory.
Second seed Donna Vekic is at 17 the youngest player in the draw, but now she’s the biggest favorite for the title. She advanced to the quarterfinals by spending just one hour and 44 minutes in her first two matches. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)
This is a big chance for Donna. And it would be only good for the image of women’s tennis if there was a teen winning a tour title.
It’s good that these young teenager girls are doing well at this level. I’m really happy for Ons Jabeur because I’ve been waiting her to get a big breaktrough ever since she won the girls French Open in 2011. Ok, maybe quarterfinals in the WTA International tournament isn’t exactly a “big breaktrough” but if she gets into the final it would quite similar to Vekic’s Tashkent run last year. And we all know how much she has risen up in the rankings since then…
In the ATP Tour there isn’t many teenagers in the Top 100 which is unfortunate I think. I always like it when a youngster does well and I think people start to cheer on them. I mean, think about Donna Vekic. Who would actually hate her??