Prague Open: First final of the year for Bouzkova

Marie Bouzkova lived up to expectations. The No 5 seed reached the final of the Prague Open by winning against Tereza Valentova 6-4, 7-5 at the Sparta Prague Tennis Club on Friday afternoon.

It’s the first time this season that the Czech player has reached a final on the WTA Tour. Her last final was exactly a year ago, at the Washington tournament, where she lost to Spain’s Paula Badosa.

Both players were very tense and did not play their best tennis on Friday in Prague. There were 72 unforced errors in total (27 from Bouzkova, 45 from Valentova) and ten breaks of serve. In these conditions, it was the Czech who managed to come out on top.

SECOND FINAL IN PRAGUE FOR BOUZKOVA

Bouzkova, ranked No 47, will face the winner of the match between Czech Linda Noskova, the top seed, and Chinese Xinyu Wang, the No 4 seed, next.

She’ll have the chance on Saturday to claim the second title of her career. She won her first in 2022, also in Prague, by defeating Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in the final.

Marie Bouzkova defeated American Ann Li, the No 9 seed (3-6, 6-3, 6-3), Italian lucky loser Lucrezia Stefanini (6-4, 6-4) and Chinese qualifier Xinyu Gao (6-0, 6-2) ahead of her victory.

In the previous rounds of the Prague tournament, Valentova, ranked No 106, won against French lucky loser Jessika Ponchet (6-2, 6-0), Slovak Rebecca Sramkova, the second seed (7-6 (1), 7-5) and Japanese Aoi Ito (6-2, 6-0).

Prague WTA 250, other semi-final result (Sparta Prague Tennis Club, clay, USD 275.094):

• Linda Noskova vs. Xinyu Wang