TC tennis star crowned ‘queen of comebacks’
ELIZ MALONEY YORGANCI REACHES FINAL OF PROFESSIONAL TOURNAMENT IN UK
UK-BASED TRNC tennis star Eliz Maloney Yorgancı was hailed as the “queen of comebacks” after reaching the final of a professional tournament in the UK. Yorgancı, 20, was runner-up in Week Two of the UK Pro League at Loughborough University on Sunday, losing 6-3, 6-3 to Emily Appleton in the final, after an incredible semi-final victory. “Comeback queen Eliz Maloney [Yorgancı] completed a miraculous turnaround to reach the UK Pro League Week 2 final and revealed the secret key to her heroics — ‘I just hate losing’,” an official match report said. “[Yorgancı] twice battled back from the brink against Week 1 finalist Beth Grey to engineer a remarkable victory and book a date in Sunday’s final with unbeaten Emily Appleton.
“Precocious [Yorgancı] found herself 5-1 down in both the second set and the super tie-break [against Grey] before eventually winning a thrilling decider 10-6.
“She lost the first set 6-3 before winning the second on an 11-9 tiebreak and [Yorgancı], who competed at last summer’s UK Pro Classic in Weybridge, reckons her fierce competitiveness held the key to her escapology.”
The 20-year-old said: “I’m just a very competitive person and I really hate losing.
“There’s always a part of you that thinks no matter what the lead is, you can do it. I think it was so far away that it just took the pressure off.
“I just started swinging a bit more freely, and then just took each point at a time. It just slowly built up. I’m very pleased, especially to build from the first week.”
Her gruelling win against Grey, which took two hours and 38 minutes and saw her save six match points, gained her the “performance of the week award” by tournament sponsors Veloforte.
“[Yorgancı] has shown tremendous improvement from week one, where she finished eighth in the overall table,” Veloforte said.
Yorgancı’s route to the Week 2 final saw her dispatch Annali Olivelle 6-0, 6-0, followed by a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Kimberly Mpukusa and a win over Olivia Nicholls before her last-four showdown with Grey.
Delighted mother İlkay Yorgancı told Cyprus Today that her daughter did “very well” in the tournament.
The UK Pro League (known as the UK Pro Series in 2020) is a professional tennis tournament, where British professional tennis players compete in eight individual week-long qualifying events leading to a “Final Week” where the UK Pro Champion is decided.
Each event is an individual week-long qualifying event where players earn league points in order to qualify for the UK Pro League Final Week, which will take place in November.
Each week consists of a 12-player men’s and women’s draw with players split into two pools of six to play a round robin format ahead of playing final ranking games over the weekend.
The league has a prize fund in excess of £500,000 and is broadcast on BT Sport in the UK.