Holland again and again
The Dutch won the singles and doubles finals of Egypt's ITF women's tennis tournament. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab reports
Amanda Hopmans of Holland snatched the singles title for the second consecutive week at the ITF Women's Circuit.
At the Smash Tennis Academy in Heliopolis, Hopmans methodically beat her compatriot Marielle Hoogland, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 15 minutes. The win gave Hopmans 12 more points and $1,600. The 27- year-old Hopmans took some time to beat Hoogland, ranked 304. After spending long training days together when they were younger, both know each other well enough to have prevented either from springing major surprises.
In the semi-final, third seeded Hopmans, ranked 350 in the world, had beaten second seeded Frederica Piedade of Portugal, ranked 342, 6-2, 6-4.
In the other semi-final, Hoogland beat an unexpected qualifier, Eden Marama of New Zealand, 6-2, 6-1.
Hopmans was 68 internationally last year but an injury dropped her to 366. The setback forced her to play in ITF tournaments to collect more points needed to enter better prize money tournaments in the WTA. After winning last week she rose to 350 in the world.
For the past five years, Egypt has been hosting the ITF circuit twice a year -- three weeks in March and three in October. Prize money totals $10,000. The event does not attract household names but several international players do seek it to try to gather up enough points to qualify for WTA championships. At the end of every week, the players can either leave or continue playing. That is why there is a winner every week.
Last week, Hopmans beat Piedade 7-6, 6-4 in the final.
The preliminaries had 41 players from The Netherlands, Austria, Argentina, New Zealand, Ireland, India, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Romania, Croatia, Portugal, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Egypt.
Two of the eight players to the main draw proved better than the seeds. New Zealander Eden Marama and Spaniard Laura Pous Tio managed to qualify for the main draw before losing in the semi-finals quarter-finals.
In the doubles final, Hopmans and Hoogland, ranked 679 as a pair, swept by Austria's Susanne Filipp and Slovak's Andrea Masarykova, ranked 1,085, 7-5, 6-4.
The doubles final of the third and final week will be played on Saturday at 1pm and the singles final at 1pm on Sunday. All matches are being held at the Smash Tennis Academy near Cairo Airport.
