This year’s TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup was greatly compromised due to the terrorist attacks that had happened in the city and a number of WTA players decided to skip the tournament for safety reasons, however, local tennis fans couldn’t have received a better consolation as their home player Cagla Buyukakcay won the title, becoming the first Turkish woman to lift the champion’s trophy on the WTA level.
Ranked 118th and unseeded, Buyukakcay first became the first Turkish woman to make a WTA semifinal, then a final, and then she went all the way to clinching the title, defeating Montenegrin fifth seed Danka Kovinic 3-6 6-2 6-3, saving as much as 10 of 12 points faced.
The 26-year-old Buyukakcay, born in Adana, Turkey, is now projected to crack the Top 100 for the first time. In the first round Buyukakcay defeated qualifier Marina Melnikova of Russia, then Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, Japan’s sixth seed Nao Hibino, Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland, and finally 60th-ranked Kovinic who was playing her second WTA final.
Nice blog on Çağla Büyükakçay, the player with the most difficult name to pronounce. Congratulations for winning in her home country, and also jumping into the top 100 which gets her an automatic bid into Roland Garros. She was the one who laughed at the cat running across the court in Doha earlier this year, in the middle of a heated 3rd set tiebreak which she lost to Roberta Vinci. I wish her well..she seems well grounded.
Congratulations to Çağla. I am so happy for her and all the Turkish tennis players and fans. 🙂