PETE ZIEBRON
2015 Eastbourne Champion Belinda Bencic. Pete Ziebron Images
Yesterday 18 year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and ATP veteran, 18 year-old Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan each won their first titles of their respective careers. Two weeks ago, 23 year-old Italian Camila Giorgi and 17 year-old Ana Konjuh of Croatia also won their maiden titles.
The third time in a final was a charm for Bencic as it appeared in her as she fell to Alison Riske in Tianjin last October and more recently to Giorgi in Den Bosch just two weeks ago. Bencic prevailed in Eastbourne on Saturday over former Wimbledon Finalist Aga Radwanska 6-4 4-6 6-0. The victory wrapped up an impressive 11-2 run for Bencic on grass in 2015 as she also defeated Genie Bouchard, lat year's Wimbledon Finalist en route to the title in Eastbourne.
Concurrent to Bencic's win, Denis Istomin tasted victory for the first time ever on the lawns of Nottingham. Istomin, who came into Nottingham with just a 6-14 mark in 2015 found his form, defeating Nicolas Almagro, Juan Monaco, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Leonardo Mayer and Marcos Baghdatis before facing American Sam Querrey in the final. Querrey was attempting to win his 8th title in 14 attempts while Istomin dropped both of his previous finals. Despite failing twice to serve out the match in the 2nd set, Istomin steadied his game late in the 2nd set tiebreaker to ultimately prevail 76(1) 76(6). With the win, Istomin rose 30 places to world #62 in the ATP rankings.
The final in Den Bosch was Camila Giorgi's 4th attempt in the last 14 months and she made good this time, denying Belinda Bencic her first title, winning 75 63. Despite 23 double faults and having to fend off multiple match points in the quarterfinals against Yaroslava Shvedova, Giorgi got through and could exhale a bit prior to reaching the semis. The aggressive hitting Italian did not drop a set in the semis nor in the final and is now ranked #32 in the world.
Much was expected of young Ana Konjuh following her impressive march through the Wimbledon qualifying draw and run to the 3rd round last year. Konjuh immediately followed up her result at Wimbledon with five more consecutive wins in qualifying and main draw to reach the semis in Istanbul. However, Konjuh would only go 19-17 since last July before running the table in Nottingham. Due to weather, Konjuh won both her quarterfinal and semifinal matches in one day. In the final, she would drop her only set of the tournament to Monica Niculescu before steadying her game to win her first title 16 64 62.
First round matches at Wimbledon for the recent Champions include:
Belinda Bencic (SUI) v Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL)
Camila Giorgi (ITA) v Teliana Pereira (BRA)
Ana Konjuh (CRO) v Alize Cornet (FRA)
Denis Istomin (UZB) v Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP)
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