Fantastic! You Xiaodi Wins Championship and Returns to TOP200

The biggest highlight of this week's tour is the WTA500 Charleston event, which is now about to start the final women's singles match. The tournament's top seed and defending champion Pegula narrowly defeated the fourth seed Jovic in the semifinals with a score of 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. So far this week, Pegula has consecutively won four three-set matches. After reaching the Charleston final for the second consecutive year, Pegula is just one victory away from successfully defending her title.

Next, Pegula will face Starodubtseva, who has played the role of a dark horse in this year's tournament. After eliminating American player Keys in the semifinals and securing her third career victory over a TOP20 player, this Ukrainian player has reached the championship stage of a tour event for the first time in her career.

It is worth mentioning that Starodubtseva eliminated Chinese player Zhang Shuai in the first round of Charleston this year. At that time, many players commented that Zhang Shuai wasted a favorable draw.

Besides Charleston, there are quite a few ITF events taking place simultaneously this week. Among them, the W100 Jin'an International Tennis Open is certainly the most watched by domestic fans. Although this event is only at the ITF level, it still attracted familiar players such as Zhu Lin and Wang Xiyu to participate.

Eventually, Chinese players You Xiaodi and Lan Xielie met in the women's singles final. In the final concluded this afternoon, You Xiaodi defeated her opponent with a total score of 6-4, 6-7, 6-4, securing the highest-level women's singles championship of her career so far. This women's singles final lasted nearly three hours, during which both players struggled due to physical fatigue.

Looking at You Xiaodi's path to the championship, she successively eliminated the top seed Tararud, who had just won the WTA125 title, and the third seed Dart. In the semifinals, she received Wang Xiyu's withdrawal gift while slightly leading in the first set. Ultimately, winning the championship is the best affirmation of You Xiaodi's performance this week.

For other professional players, the W100 might just be a small ITF event, but this championship is indeed significant for You Xiaodi. She broke the curse of eight consecutive runner-up finishes in singles finals since March 2020, and this is also her seventh singles championship in her career.

After earning 100 championship points, You Xiaodi's world ranking soared from No. 238 before the tournament to No. 193. She also successfully secured qualification spots for this year's French Open and Wimbledon.

You Xiaodi, born in May 1996, is about to turn 30 years old. This age is no longer young for professional tennis players and is even approaching the retirement phase. We hope You Xiaodi can carry the joy of returning to TOP200 and achieve more victories in upcoming matches!（Source: Tennis Home Author: Barbie）