Tijana Sretenovic (SRB) and Gilles Arnaud Bailly (BEL) have been crowned champions at this year’s TIM Essonne Category 1 event. Just days after the Kungens Kanna & Drottningens Pris, many players continued to Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, outside Paris, to play the next in line Category 1 event.
Bailly has now won his biggest title, the Belgian came into the final strongly, and was especially impressive in his straight-sets win over second seed Maxim Zhukov (RUS). Nevertheless, as the eighth seed, he was still considered the underdog in the final where he faced top seed Mihai Alexandru Coman (ROU). The Romanian had had some tougher matches on route to the decider but clawed his way into his first major final. He was also the top seed in Kungens Kanna recently where he fell in the semis and took another step forward here in France. Coman put up solid resistance in the second set, but Bailly held him at bay to avoid a third set and take the title 6-2 7-6(5).
Adding to her win at the Christmas Cup in January, Sretenovic has won her second title Category 1 title of the year. The number four seed made her way to the final with some effort, her opponent in the final was top seed Kristyna Tomajkova (CZE), who had dominantly advanced to the final without dropping a set. After an extremely tough battle for the first set, Sretenovic held her nerve to secure a crucial break in the second set to then grab a 7-6(9) 6-3 win. Her triumph in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois also gave Sretenovic some sweet consolation for the loss in the quarterfinal of Drottningens Pris, where she lost against another Czech, Brenda Fruhvirtova. Fruhvirtova continued and won Drottningens Pris as the youngest champion in the tournament’s history; her 12 birthday is within one month.
