Cambodian wins ITF doubles event in Portugal
CAMBODIA’S Andrea Ka partnered German Katharina Hering to win the doubles title in the ITF women’s $10,000 Azores Open Futures 2 in the Portuguese city of Ponta Delgada last weekend.
In t he hard-court f inal at t he Clube de Tenis de Mig uel, t he second-seeded Ka-Hering doubles pairing easily had the measure of Desirae Krawczyk of the US a nd E l i naV i k h r y a nova of Russia 6-3, 6-3.
On the way to the final, Ka and her pa r t ner ousted t hi rd seed Ja zzamav Drew of Great Britain a nd Mia Nicole Ek lund of Finla nd 6-2, 6-3.
In the singles main draw, however, the 24-year old Cambodian r ig ht-ha nder, who beca me t he first player from the Kingdom to win an ITF singles event earlier t his year, bowed out in t he second round to Natalia Orlova of Russia 4-6, 6-7.
Having touched a career high ranking of 752 in the world at the sta rt of t he event, t he f if t h-seeded Ka, who made the semifinals in a similar event a week ago, got past t he f i rst rou nd wit h ease against Claudia Franze of Ita ly 6-1, 6-4.
“I was a bit disappointed with my singles result but I am happy to win the doubles title but I am determined to improve my singles ranking,” said Ka, who has amassed seven ranking points in the last three tournaments this month.
The American-born player, who first represented Cambodia in the 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia and figured only in the mixed doubles then, led the Kingdom’s first ever women’s team in the 2015 Singapore edition.