Cabrera dashes up ladder like firefighter

TENNIS QUEENSLAND teen Lizette Cabrera will leap over seven Australian women in the world rankings, having yesterday won her second Futures tournament title in as many weeks.

Cabrera, coached by Anthony Richardson at Tennis Australia’s Brisbane academy, won the $25,000 Brisbane Futures final 6-2, 6-4 over Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova.

The 18-year-old’s WTA ranking, which was No.1062 at the start of the year, will move 138 places to No.346, according to the liverankings.com website, making her the eighthranked Australian.

It puts Cabrera, who won the Tweed Heads Futures final the previous Sunday, in with a shot at one of TA’s qualifying wildcards or even a main-draw wildcard at the summer WTA tournaments in Australia.

Cabrera’s rankings leap puts her close on the list to two young Queenslanders who received WTA main draw wildcards from TA last summer, Kim Birrell (No.323) and Priscilla Hon (No.328).

“It was really great to play and win at the facility I train at,’’ Cabrera said.

The Townsville-born righthander beat three seeds and did not lose a set on the way to her Brisbane title.

American Jamere Jenkins beat Victorian 19-year-old Marc Polmans 6-1, 7-5 in the men’s final at the Queensland Tennis Centre.

Jenkins, 25, reversed the result of their final at last month’s Alice Springs Futures. He didn’t lose a set in Brisbane.

Polmans continues an encouraging year in which he has travelled well, making the final of two American Futures events and winning three titles, two in Mozambique and the other in Zimbabwe.