Dalma Galfi of Hungary has finally secured a WTA 125 title after two previous runner-up finishes. In the Oeiras Ladies Open final in Portugal, the unseeded Galfi defeated second-seeded American player Katie Volynets with a score of 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Despite schedule disruptions due to rain throughout the week, the clay-court tournament successfully concluded on Sunday. Galfi`s victory came after a 2-hour and 13-minute comeback in the final match.
Celebrating her most significant professional win, Galfi posted on Instagram, quoting “Third time’s the charm.”
Galfi`s previous WTA 125 final appearances included losses to Sara Errani at Contrexeville in 2022 and to Darja Semenistaja earlier this month at La Bisbal d`Emporda. Notably, all of her WTA 125 finals have been played on clay courts, and each went to three sets.
In this recent victory, Galfi managed to recover after losing the first set, dominating the subsequent two. She successfully defended against all four break points she faced in the second and third sets combined.
Throughout the tournament, Galfi only dropped a single set, which was the first set of the final match. She has achieved victory in nine of her last ten matches, with the Oeiras title following her La Bisbal d`Emporda final appearance by two weeks.
Currently ranked at No. 149, Galfi is expected to climb closer to the Top 120 in the upcoming rankings update. A former Junior World Champion and Junior US Open champion in 2015, Galfi reached her career-high WTA ranking of No. 79 in 2022.
In other news from Sunday, Portuguese sisters Francisca and Matilde Jorge successfully defended their Oeiras Ladies Open doubles title on their home turf.
The Jorge siblings, who won their biggest career title at this event last year, repeated their success as the No. 2 seeds this year. They defeated Anastasia Detiuc and Patricia Maria Tig, who were unseeded, with a score of 6-1, 6-2 in a final that lasted 63 minutes.
Rupert Caldwell