Tennis ace reaches 3rd final in a row
TC Eliz Maloney Yorgancı fınishes top of women’s singles Pool A in the UK Pro League tournament
TENNIS star Eliz Maloney Yorgancı reached her third final in a row during Week 4 of the UK Pro League tournament in Loughborough last Sunday.
The TRNC player, the winner of Week 3 of the competition, played seven matches in seven days from April 26 to May 2.
Yorgancı fınished top of the women’s singles Pool A with four wins from five matches.
In the semi-final she overcame Nadia Rawson 6-3, 6-3 to set up her third final clash with the league’s top women’s player Emily Appleton, who she had easily beaten in the Week 3 final.
Speaking after her semi-final win, Yorgancı said: “The whole time it felt neck and neck. In the second set in particular, there were a lot of deuce games so I was just happy to win those key moments.
“You start to feel it [the longer matches] a bit but lockdown has offered a chance to get some good fitness work in.
“There’s always a bit of extra pressure, but I took a lot of confidence out of last week so there’s a balance there between the two.”
Asked to comment about facing Appleton again, Yorgancı added: “I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be our third final, and we’re split at one all, so I think it will be a really good match.
“There are a few key things that we’ll be looking at and it might be a case of seeing who comes out of it better on the day.”
However this time Appleton put up a much stronger fight, beating Yorgancı 6-4, 7-5 in a closely fought contest.
Mother İkay Yorgancı told Cyprus Today: “At the end of the tournament, Eliz said that although she has had to take a break from ITF [International Tennis Federation] tournaments due to Covid-19, her goal is to participate in international tournaments in the coming weeks and rise in the world rankings.”
Week 5 of the UK Pro League, which has a prize fund of more than £500,000, is scheduled to take place from July 12-18.
After eight weeks of matches, the top nine players in the league standings will qualify for the final week in November along with three wildcard entries.