A female Turkish tennis player entered the history books today after beating Danka Kovinic from Montenegro in the final of the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup.
Coming from a set down, Çağla Büyükakçay beat her opponent 2.1 (3-6, 6-2, and 6-3) in front of her home crowd at the Garanti Koza Arena in Istanbul. Her run-up to the final had showed Büyükakçay to be in impressive form, winning all four games without dropping a set.
Having cruised through the tournament’s opening games the 26-year-old from Adana faced a far tougher opponent in Kovinic, who was ranked 50th by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in February. After a shaky start, Büyükakçay settled. She took 63% of her first serve points and six of 11 break points to be crowned the winner after an hour and 23 minutes.
Büyükakçay’s win makes her the first female Turkish player to win a WTA title. She also becomes the first to enter world tennis’ top 100 rankings.
After the match, she told reporters, “It was very important for me to break the Top 100 this match; that’s why I was very emotional at the end. I’ve been working for it for the first time, and I’ll be the first woman in Turkish tennis to be Top 100. It’s a huge thing for me.”
Main photo: Çağla Büyükakçay 2, 2015 Wimbledon Qualifying – Diliff
