Winner Varatchaya guns for US Open berth
Thai doubles expert Varatchaya Wongteanchai is looking forward to making her Grand Slam debut in the upcoming US Open after she and her Australian partner Jessica Moore won the doubles trophy in the US$250,000 BRD Bucharest Open on Sunday.
The 26-year-old from Chiang Rai and Moore beat Alexandra Cadantu of Romania and Kataryzna Piter of Poland 6-3 7-6 (7-5) in the final of the clay court tournament. It was the second WTA title for the Thai, who won the Malaysian Open along with China’s Yang Zhaoxuan in March.
The title in Bucharest propelled the Thai to her career’s highest ranking of No 79 this week on the WTA list, which takes her a step closer to qualifying in a Major for the first time.
“To be able to play in the US Open is my goal now. Since there is no qualifying competition for the US Open, the combined ranking [with her partner] should be inside the top 150 so that we get a direct entry,” said Varatchaya, whose combined ranking with Moore is now at No 167.
The Thai is determined to gain good results in the two WTA events in Bastad this week and Nanjing next week, the last two tournaments before the US Open cut-off date. Varatchaya also said she was surprised to win the crown in Bucharest, which was organised on clay, a surface which is least to her liking.
“Thais have an inborn aversion towards the surface so it was incredible to win a WTA title on clay. Besides, we had to play super tie-break sets for three rounds to be in the final and finally won, I’m so overwhelmed,” said Varatchaya.
After several breaks of serves, Varatchaya and the Australian held for the first time to lead 4-3 and went on to wrap up the opener. They fought back from 0-3 down to take the second set amidst enthusiastic support from home fans for Cadantu.
“Cadantu was under great pressure as the home fans wanted her to win. For us, we tried to dictate play at the net and not give them easy points,” the Thai said.
Unlike in the past, Varatchaya opted to go on a tour in Europe this year and most events are on clay. She took the risk to compete on her least favourite surface but things turned out far better than she had expected.
“In the past I chose to play in Asia at this time of the year and had to play the same players and same events. Now I think I made the right decision to come here as I got the chance to play with new players with different styles and learned a lot especially on how to play on clay,” she said.
