By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday October 27, 2021
Estonia's Anett Kontaveit stretched her current winning streak to six with a win over Aleksandra Krunic in Romania.
Photo Source: Transylvania Open
The challenge is simple for Anett Kontaveit this week at the Transylvania Open when it comes to qualifying for November's WTA Finals: Win and you’re in.
The Estonian, who has now won 22 of her last 24 matches, took care of her business on Wednesday with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Alexsandra Krunic of Serbia.
"The match was close just one break in the first set and I thought I was serving pretty well and winning a lot of points on my first serve," she said. "It definitely wasn't an easy match, the second set got really close and competitive, eventually I felt like I was trying to be aggressive and managed to play some close points really well."
With Ons Jabeur out of action this week due to an elbow injury, Kontaveit holds her fate in her own hands. Jabeur currently holds the final qualification spot, but the current World No.14, aged 25, can make her WTA Finals debut at Guadalajara if she takes the title in Kluj-Napoca.
Kontaveit’s torrid last two months, which began with a title at Cleveland under new coach Dmitry Tursunov and have taken her through indoor titles at Ostrava and last week at Moscow, have opened up the possibility of a year-end Top-10 finish and a trip the prestigious year-end finals.
Once again on Wednesday, Kontaveit reiterated to reporters that Tursunov’s fresh energy has helped her find her best form – while assuring the public that there is no secret to her success.
"I think he's just brought fresh eyes to the team and just given me some confidence and a more positive way to look at things," she said. "There's no huge secret behind it."
Putting 24 matches under her belt in two months will force Kontaveit to manage her energy. But first, there is a title to be won: she will face Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium in the second round.
"I'm holding up," she said. "Of course I've played a lot of matches and I'm not super fresh but I think that's normal towards the end of the season and I'm definitely going to fight really hard for every match and try my best to recover as well as I can."
Halep Sails into Round Two
Simona Halep advanced with relative ease on Wednesday, topping compatriot Elena-Gabriela Ruse, 6-1, 6-2 to book a second-round clash with Russia’s Varvara Gracheva.
The top-seeded Romanian says she is feeling better at the end of a trying season that saw her miss Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the Olympics due to injury.
"I'm improving day by day, and I feel more confident during the tournaments, during the matches," Halep said. "I think I started to feel again my best game, of course it's never easy after a long period that I didn't play matches, but now I'm focused only on what I feel today, and I feel good.
"It's already passed with injuries so I'm trying to take the positives with every match. Just to get the feeling back of the official matches, I didn't play much this year and I really would like to get that feeling back and to get the confidence, so this is the only one goal."