After a three-year title drought, Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu is back in the winner’s circle, and she got there on home soil.
No. 7 seed Begu defeated No. 6 seed Jil Teichmann of Switzerland 6-0, 7-5 in the final of the UniCredit Iasi Open on Sunday. Begu took 1 hour and 33 minutes to beat Teichmann for the fourth time in their five career meetings.
It was almost exactly three years ago that former Top 25 player Begu reached her most recent final (and won the title) at 2022 Palermo. At last, the Romanian prevailed again on Sunday to capture her sixth career Hologic WTA Tour singles title.
Out of her six WTA singles titles, this is Begu’s third on her preferred clay courts. It is also her second time clinching a WTA singles title in her home country — she claimed the crown in the Romanian capital of Bucharest in 2017.
Both players in Sunday’s singles final have peaked in the Top 25 of the PIF WTA Rankings (Teichmann at No. 21, Begu at No. 22) but are both just outside the Top 100 this week.
This was also a big comeback event for Swiss left-hander Teichmann, who reached her first final since WTA 1000 Cincinnati in August 2021, nearly four years ago. But Begu was far too strong for Teichmann in Sunday’s first set, taking it in 29 minutes.
Teichmann fought back in the second set and earned a love break to lead 4-2, but Begu immediately broke back at love to regain her momentum. Another love break gave Begu the 6-5 lead, and after a variety of excellent groundstroke winners, the Romanian finished off an emotional home-field win with an unreturned overhead.
Earlier on Sunday, Veronika Erjavec and Panna Udvardy won the Iasi doubles title. In an all-unseeded final, the Erjavec and Udvardy defeated Maria Lourdes Carle and Simona Waltert 7-5, 6-3.
Udvardy, Carle and Waltert were all also singles quarterfinalists this week.
More to come…