Britain’s Francesca Jones earned her first WTA Tour win of the season in the 1st-round of the Copa Colsanitas, the WTA 250 event in Bogota, when the 23-year-old dispatched Colombian wild-card Yuliana Monroy over two days, 6-1 6-2.
Jones has been bedevilled by injuries in her fledgling career, but memorably achieved her best result of 2023 in Bogota by reaching the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Tatjana Maria from Germany, which proved to be her last top-level appearance until this week.
The World No 214 made it to the 2nd-round of Australian Open qualifying before tearfully retiring injured, before also having to give up, just 3 games into the final, in the Hammamet 2 ITF W35 in Tunisia.
Jones, though, made a statement of intent during her run to the final at last month’s WTA 125 San Luis Open, finishing as the runner-up to Nadia Podoroska from Argentina, while her WTA 250 come-back has been a successful affair.
The Briton won the first 4 games against Monroy, and was leading by a break in the second set when play was suspended on Tuesday, but she emphatically finished the job on Wednesday to set up a 2nd-round meeting with German 7th seed Laura Siegemund, who was a 7-6(5) 7-5 winner over Belarusian qualifier Iryna Shymanovich, for a place in the Last 8.
Sara Errani need 3 hours and 22 minutes to get past Laura Pigossi in Bogotá
X
Italy’s Sara Errani emerged from a break-filled match against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo with a 6-2 4-6 6-4 win on Wednesday to seal a place in the quarter-finals, losing her serve 6 times, but breaking Sorribes Tormo 8 times.
Neither scored an ace on the clay-court surface, and Sorribes Tormo finished with 9 double-faults to Errani’s 6.
In other 2nd-round action, 8th-seeded Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia escaped with a 7-6(4) 6-7(5) 6-3 win over Mexico’s Renata Zarazua; while Romania’s Irina Bara rallied past Laura Pigossi, 3-6 7-6(3) 6-4, surviving a rain delay and a match point before outlasting the Brazilian in 3 hours and 22 minutes; and, in the last match of the night, 4th-seeded Cristina Bucsa of Spain strolled past Germany’s Jule Niemeier, 6-4 6-1.
The Copa Colsanitas Zurich has been held since 1998, making it one of the longest-running tournaments on the Hologic WTA Tour calendar as well as the biggest in South America, and, this year, it marks the first sighting of red clay in 2024.
Fran Jones (R) reached the final in Bogotá last year, losing to Nadia Podoroska (L), and is defending 300 ranking points this week
X
This website aggregates and curates news articles, blog posts, and other content from a variety of external sources. While we aim to link back to the original source, this site does not own or claim ownership of any articles, posts, or other content indexed on this site. The views, opinions, and factual statements expressed in each piece of aggregated content belong solely to its respective author and publisher. We make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of aggregated content. Visitors are advised to verify facts and claims through the original source before reuse or redistribution.
