Tennis player Elena Malõgina wins big in Birmingham
Estonia's top women's player Elena Malõgina took the biggest title of her career so far by beating top seed Noma Noha Akugue (German( in the ITF W35 final in Birmingham, England.
The 25-year-old Malõgina, ranked 430th in the world, started the final with four consecutive breaks of her opponent's serve. Akugne is ranked 159 spots above her by the WTA and is three years her junior.
The set then went on to even out up to a score of 4:4 in games, at which point Malõgina broke again, sealing the set win by holding her serve in the next game.
In the second set, the German went ahead 3:1. However, Malõgina responded by stringing together four games in a row, enough to help her to her first tournament victory of the season.
This was the first W35-category title of the Estonian's career; previously, she has won three lower-level W15 tournaments—two victories in 2019 and one in 2021.
Malõgina is also more of a doubles specialist, having won no fewer than 13 tournaments, most recently just two weeks ago, when she claimed the W50-category title in Manchester together with her partner Alicia Dudeney.
Contiuing that form, Malõgina has also reached the doubles semifinals in Birmingham with her partner Katarina Kuzmova (Slovakia).
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste
