With an impressive showing in back-to-back tournaments at the Riu Kaya Belek venue in Antalya, Elena Gabriela Ruse is our featured player for the month.
Ruse competed in both singles and doubles events in Turkey and in the first of these she was named the fourth seed in both events.
In singles play, Ruse met with little resistance and seemingly eased through the rounds to the end of week final. Winning all rounds in straight sets, it wasn’t until the second set of her semifinal win over top seed Julia Grabher that she conceded more than two games in a set.
That semifinal saw her post a 61 64 win and claim a place in the title match against French third seed Josephine Boualem.
The day prior to the singles final, Ruse was out on court contesting the doubles final playing alongside Bulgarian partner Petia Arshinkova in doubles, with whom she reached the quarterfinals in Antalya during December 2015.
The duo had come through three rounds, all in straight sets, to reach the final. A close 63 75 semifinal win over the number one seeds was followed with another close match to decide the title.
Thirds seeds Eleni Daniilidou, a 2006 doubles semifinalist at Roland Garros, and partner Arina Folts were their opponents in the final and the opening set went to a tiebreak which Ruse and Arshinkova dominated to win 7-0.
From here they went on to take the title, winning 64 in the second set. This was Ruse’s second doubles title of her career having also been triumphant back in August 2015 in her homeland.
With the doubles title secured, Ruse returned to the court the following day hopeful of adding the singles title to her sole singles success in early December last year.
Ruse took the first set 76(3) but then failed to win a game in the second set as Boualem drew level but the French player was not able to capitalise on this swing in fortunes and Ruse came back strong to take the deciding set 61 and for the first time in her career end a tournament week in possession of both the singles and doubles titles.
Her second tournament at this same venue saw her in the draw as the third seed in the singles event and again seeded fourth in doubles but on this occasion with first time American partner Dasha Ivanova.
Ruse got off to a flying start in the singles event, winning her opening two rounds each with the loss of just one game but things got a lot tougher in her quarterfinal clash with Marina Kachar.
The Serbian seventh seed and Ruse played out three sets of tennis with each being settled on a tiebreak.
Ruse struck first to move into a one set lead, winning the tiebreak 7-3 before Kachar hit back with a 7-4 win. The final set saw Ruse repeat her efforts of the opening set and a final 76(3) 67(4) 76(3) victory carried her into the semifinal.
Here she faced the fifth seed Petra Uberalova and, following her titanic battle against Kachar, Ruse could be thankful of an easier ride in this encounter due to the unfortunate retirement of her Slovakian opponent with Ruse leading 61 2-1.
Good progress was also being made in the doubles event. Two straight sets wins was followed with a semifinal 64 61 defeat of the second seeds.
With a place in the final earned at the first time of asking, Ruse and Ivanova played out two contrasting sets and a 76(1) 61 win over the top seeded Adrijana Lekaj and Viktoriya Tomova of Croatia and Bulgaria respectively saw the newly formed partnership triumphant and give Ruse back-to-back doubles titles.
The month was closed out with her singles final against eighth seed Nina Potocnik. Chasing a second successive clean sweep of all tournament titles Ruse edged the opening set 75 and, after her Slovenian opponent had drawn level with a 64 second set win, finished off the match winning 62 in the third.
Having won singles and doubles titles at both tournaments this month, a career first for the 18-year-old, more celebrations were to come as the final WTA ranking release of the month saw Ruse up to a new career high of 455.
By Nick Fishpool