Elizara Yaneva continues her successful performance at the WTA 125 hard court tennis tournament in Courmayeur, Italy, with a prize pool of 115,000 euros. The Bulgarian secured a place in the quarterfinals in the singles competition after a victory over third-seeded Oksana Selehmeteva from Spain.
The 19-year-old Yaneva prevailed 6:3, 3:6, 6:3 against her opponent, who is ranked 120th in the world. The match lasted an hour and 57 minutes, and the Bulgarian tennis player had to show character to achieve the final success.
In the first set, Yaneva managed to tip the scales in her favor in the final phase. With a score of 3:3, she won three consecutive games and closed the set at 6:3.
The second set developed less favorably for the Bulgarian. She led with a break twice, but was unable to maintain her advantage. After reaching 3:2, Yaneva lost four consecutive games and retreated 3:6.
In the decisive third set, the national player found herself in a difficult situation, falling behind by 1:3. However, this did not break her. Yaneva found the strength to win the next five games and close the match at 6:3, creating a turnaround against the number three seed in the schedule.
With the victory, the Bulgarian secured 27 points for the world ranking. This week she holds the best ranking in her career - 139th place. In a dispute for a place in the semifinals, Yaneva will meet the winner of the match between the eighth seed Suzanne Bandecchi from Switzerland and the Frenchwoman Elsa Jacquemo.
There was also a successful day for Rositsa Dencheva, who qualified for the doubles semifinals. The Bulgarian and her Italian partner Enola Chiesa overcame the quarterfinals after a contested match against Susanne Bandecchi and Lisa Pigato from Italy.
Dencheva and Chiesa won the first set after a tiebreak with 7:6(7), lost in the second part with 2:6, but were more convincing in the decisive championship tiebreak and prevailed with 10:7.
For a place in the final, the Bulgarian-Italian tandem will play against the winners of the match between the second seeds Madeleine Brooks from Great Britain and Lisa Zaar from Sweden, on the one hand, and Adrienne Nagy from Hungary and Sappho Sakellaridi from Greece, on the other.
Dencheva added 49 points to her assets in the world doubles ranking. She is the highest-ranked Bulgarian in this discipline, currently occupying a career-high 210th place.