For the second week in a row a former Stanford Cardinal claimed a singles title as Carol Zhao won the biggest singles title of her pro career at the ITF $100K event in Shenzhen, China. Zhao started off the week with a 6-4 (ret.) win over the No. 7 seed Anna Zaja and then in the second round she came back from a 5-1 third set deficit to defeat former top 30 player Laura Robson 6-1, 4-6, 7-5. Zhao defeated Xu Liu Sun 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals and then in the semifinals she won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 over Yuxuan Zhang. In the final, Zhao ousted the No. 4 seed Fangzhou Liu 7-5, 6-2 in 1 hour and 19 minutes. The singles title is the second of Zhao’s career with the other coming back in August at a $25K event in Japan.
Zhao entered the week with a WTA ranking of 221 but with the title and corresponding 140 points she moved up 71 spots to a new career high of 150. Zhao also picked up a nice payday of $15,200. Zhao’s former teammate Kristie Ahn won an $80K event last week in Tyler, Texas.
? First 100K title ?
Its been a long way here since January and I owe this to the small group of people whose belief in me never wavered even when mine did. There are still many, many more miles to go but Im so so grateful for you, and for this. ??? pic.twitter.com/RnuaQnCQAt
carolzhao (@CarolZhao95) November 12, 2017
Former Clemson Tiger Yannick Maden made it to his second Challenger singles final of the year at the $85K in Mouilleron Le Captif, France. Maden defeated four top 200 opponents, all in straight sets, before falling to Elias Ymer 7-5, 6-4. Maden won $7,200 and picked up 60 ATP points which moved his ranking up to a new career high of 148.
The Skupski Brothers, Ken and Neal, won their third Challenger doubles title of the year with a close three set win over Sander Arends and Antonio Sancic at the $106K Bratislva, Slovakia Challenger. The Skupski’s knocked out the No. 2 seeds Podlipnik-Castillo and Vasilevski 7-6, 7-6 in the first round and then got a walkover win over Gombos and Lacko in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals they defeated Brunstrom and Krawietz 7-6, 6-4 and in the final they came back from 7-5 down in the third set supertiebreak to win 5-7, 6-3, 10-8. The Skupski’s split the $6,580 winner’s purse and each picked up 110 points. Neal has now equaled his career high ranking of 68 while Ken is currently ranked 86 (CH-44).
Former Arizona State Sun Devil Jacqueline Cako won her second doubles title in the past month as she and Nina Stojanovic won the ITF $100K event in Shenzhen, China. Cako and Stojanovic won a tough three setter in their opening round match and then they won their next three matches in straight sets including a 6-4, 6-2 win in the final. Cako earned $2,700 for the win and picked up 140 ranking points which moved her ranking up to a new career high of 92.
Below is a list of last weekend’s winners and runner-ups on the pro circuit.
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$15K Antalya, Turkey F42 Futures – Diego Hidalgo (Florida ’16)
$15K Heraklion, Greece F8 Futures – Conor Berg (New Mexico ’13)/Mousheg Hovhannisyan (Pepperdine ’13)
* didn’t stay in college for all four years
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