Austrian Anastasia Potapova has the chance to write tennis history. On Sunday, the 25-year-old could become the first Austrian woman ever to win the singles title at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz. Potapova, who has been playing for Austria since the beginning of the year, beat Croatian qualifier Donna Vekic 6:4, 6:2 in the semi-finals. In the final on Sunday (2 pm/ live on ORF1) she will face world number ten Mirra Andreeva, who beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse from Romania 6:4, 6:1. Never before had an Austrian woman reached the final at Austria's biggest women's sporting event.
„Thank you very much for your support. I am almost speechless. It's hard to describe how I feel. I've reached my first 500 final at my first tournament as an Austrian in Austria. That means the world to me. I've never had so much support at a tournament,“ said an emotionally overwhelmed Anastasia Potapova after reaching the final in Linz for the second time with a convincing performance against Vekic. In 2023, she won thanks to a furious victory in the final against Petra Martic. And Potapova is also in extremely strong form now. She played very aggressively from the baseline, was successful on her first serve and hit twice as many direct points in the second set alone as her opponent, who was running a little low on energy after a long tournament. Potapova, meanwhile, did not concede a single set during the tournament and has reached a 500 final on the tour for the first time ever.
Mirra Andreeva had previously lived up to her role as favourite, but also benefited from the fact that Elena-Gabriela Ruse was not at full strength. The Romanian was already leading 4:2 in the first set, but had to undergo treatment on her left thigh, as she had done in the quarter-finals, and lost the thread of her game as a result. The top seed Andreeva took four games in a row and thus also the first set (6:4). However, Ruse continued to fight back and tried to turn the match around, but Andreeva was fully focussed on the „big points“ and converted her third match point after 91 minutes. Austria, and Linz in particular, seems to be a feel-good zone for Andreeva. „I've played so many youth tournaments in Austria. I was always one of the youngest there and have been in the final. Now I'm back in a final here in Linz as a young player. That makes me very happy,“ explained Andreeva to the cheers of the crowd.
Andreeva leads the head-to-head between the two finalists 2:1, having won their last duel in the second round of the US Open in New York 6:1 and 6:3.
In the doubles final on Sunday, the top seeds Sorana Cirstea (Romania)/ Zhang Shuai (China) will meet the Czechs Jesika Maleckova/ Miriam Skoch after the singles final. Cirstea/Zhang won the second semi-final against Ulrikke Eikeri (Norway)/Quinn Gleasson (USA) 7:5, 6:2 on Saturday.
