More than eight years after her debut in Gstaad, Viktorija Golubic celebrates her second tournament victory on the WTA Tour in south-east China. The triumph comes out of nowhere.

In the final of the WTA 250 tournament in Jiujiang, Golubic defeated the No. 2 seed Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6:3, 7:5, something that could not have been expected.

The 28-year-old Eastern European, ranked almost 120 places higher than the Swiss at number 53 in the world, was clearly favored based on her recent results. While Golubic has often had to play under in recent weeks and months, Sramkova has recently experienced the best phase of her career to date with her first WTA title and another final appearance in September.

Early break and strong reaction

For Golubic, the door to a surprise in her fifth WTA final, her first in over three years, opened in the very first set. The 32-year-old from Zurich immediately started with a break and was able to defend her lead without a service break from her opponent, who is four years younger.

In the second set, Golubic fell behind early with a break (1:2) and missed six (!) break points in the subsequent monster service game of the Slovakian, who was now less error-prone. However, she did not let this put her off, winning the next three games and converting her first match point after a further break to make it 7-5 after 1:52 hours.

By winning the final, Golubic also overcame a minor trauma, as she had not won a single set in the three previous finals.

Complicated season

Golubic’s second WTA tournament victory after the one on clay in Gstaad in 2016 is not a matter of course. The Swiss player can look back on a complicated season, even though her start to the year was promising. After making it through two rounds for the first time ever at the Australian Open in January, she never managed to win two matches in a row at a WTA tournament again until this week.

As a result of her numerous first-round defeats, Golubic has fallen out of the top 160 in the world rankings for the first time since 2016. Now, thanks to five consecutive victories this week, she is approaching the top 100 again, which is so important in terms of the Grand Slams in order to avoid qualifying. On Monday, the WTA computer spits her out as number 104. Golubic achieved her best ranking in February 2022 as number 35 in the world.

In action with Switzerland in Biel

But Golubic’s tennis year is not over yet. The weekend after next, she will lead the Swiss team in the Billie Jean King Cup at home (in Biel) against Serbia. There she will also meet Belinda Bencic, who made her comeback this week after taking a break to have a baby. After that, Golubic plans to play two more small tournaments in France.

SDA