Premium
Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu will play in the singles' finals of the Hobart WTA Tournament (Australia), featuring prizes worth 226,750 USD, after Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko stepped down before Friday's semifinals, while Raluca Olaru qualified for the doubles' finals.
Tsurenko, #61 in the world ranking, had been forced to withdraw for the same medical reasons from the Brisbane Tournament last week, as well.
Monica Niculescu, # 40 WTA, sent Lesia Tsurenko her best wishes.
"I am sorry for her, but I wish she feels better at Australia Open. It would have been a difficult match against her, but I wish her all the best. I wish her good health," said Niculescu, who also complained of abdominal pain during the quarterfinals on Thursday, but reassured her fans she would be ready for Saturday's finals.
"I will certainly be well. Tomorrow I will give my best," stated Niculescu.
Monica won the only match she had played so far against Tsurenko, in 2011, in the qualifications to Indian Wells, with a score of 6-2, 6-3.
Monica Niculescu holds two titles at the Hobart tournament, both of them in doubles' events, in 2012 (alongside Irina Begu) and in 2014 (alongsite Klara Koukalova).
In the singles' finals at Hobart, Monica will face off against Belgian player Elise Mertens. Niculescu secured for herself a 21,400 USD check and 180 WTA points.
Monica won three WTA titles in singles' events, in 2013 in Florianopolis, in 2014 in Guangzhou and in 2016 in Luxembourg. She lost another four finals, in Luxembourg (2011, 2012), Nottingham (2015) and Seoul (2016).
Raluca Olaru and Ukrainian Olga Savchuk qualified on Friday, in the doubles' finals, by 6-4, 6-2 against the team Mandy Minella (Luxemburg)/Anastasija Sevastova (Latvia). Olaru and Savchuk will play their second, consecutive final, after the one lost at Shenzen, on Saturday.
Their adversaries in the final match will be the winners of the match between Demi Schuurs (the Netherlands)/Renata Voracova (Czech Republic) and Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada)/Zhaoxuan Yang (China), seeded third.
Olaru (#64 WTA in the doubles' ladder) and Savcuk (#58 WTA in the doubles' ladder) secured a 6,400 USD check and 180 WTA points.
Olaru has reached the fifth WTA doubles' title in her career, with the previous ones being won in Tashkent (together with Olga Savchuk) in 2008, in Acapulco in 2011 (together with Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva), in Nuremberg in 2013 (together with Russian Valeria Solovyeva), and in Linz in 2014 (together with Georgian-American Anna Tatishvili).
Furthermore, the Romanian player previously took part in seven WTA finals: Budapest in 2008 (with German Vanessa Henke), Katowice in 2013 (with Solovyeva), 2014 in Nurnberg and Baku, both together with Shahar Peer (Israel), 2015 in Nurnberg (together with Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena), in 2016 in Rabat (together with German Tatjana Maria) and in Bol (Croatia), together with Ipek Soylu as well as in 2017 in Shenzen (with Savchuk).
