Excellent performance by Tamara Kostick! The 18-year-old, who won the ITF W15 tournament in Veerumäki (Finland) a year ago, made his first final appearance in the ITF W35 category in Yekla. The only thing she hasn’t done since Nikola Hoffmana in May 2009 (a US$50,000 event in Fukuoka) is an event with at least US$25,000 in prize money (as distributed in the ITF W35 event). .) to succeed. In Sunday’s final, the Viennese (WTA 674) bowed out to second seed Amandine Hesse (WTA 297) 4:6, 6:3, 4:6 after a 2:16-hour battle. In the world rankings on 20 May, she will significantly improve on her career high of 666 and is currently ranked 609 in the WTA live rankings;
Kostic had previously achieved four strong victories without losing a set in the province and region of Murcia in the south-east of Spain. After an opening win, she knocked out third-seeded Finn Anastasia Kulikova (WTA 342) and fifth-seeded American Jessica Faila (WTA 488) in the round of 16 – and then managed to regain the top spot. In the semi-finals, coach Christoph Neidhart’s protégé took care of her on the floor and eliminated top seed Swiss Valentina Rieser (WTA 247) 7:6 (6), 6:4. Koštic was down 1:5 once in the first set at 5:6 and 3:6 in the tiebreak three times in a row. In the title fight against Hesse, his biggest tournament win to date lacked much, as he twice led 1:0 and 3:2 in the third round and was fully engaged at 4:4. The Frenchwoman eventually took the last two games to win, but that didn’t detract from Kostic’s excellent week.
