Unseeded Italian Jasmine Paolini continued her dream week at the Zavarovalnica Sava Portoroz on Saturday, beating 2nd-seeded Yulia Putintseva from Kazakstan, 1-6 6-3 6-4, to reach her first WTA final where she will face No 3 seed Alison Riske from USA for the title.

Defending champion Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia, the No 3 seed at the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open, overcame a late but spirited second set challenge from 7th-seeded Russian Liudmila Samsonova to set up a trophy match against Denmark’s Clara Tauson, who needed 3...

Belinda Bencic’s hopes of gaining more points in the Porsche Race to the WTA Finals were dashed at the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open on Friday when the top-seeded Swiss was beaten by Russia’s Liudmilla Samsonova, the No 7 seed, 6-1 6-4, in an hour and 13 minutes.

At the Zavarovalnica Sava Portoroz tournament in Slovenia, 4th seed Sorana Cirstea, a recent Emma Raducanu conquest, was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-1 by Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in their last 8 meeting.

Two WTA 250 tournaments are taking place this week, in Luxembourg where Belinda Bencic leads the field indoors on hard courts, and at Portoroz where top seed Petra Martic fell at the first hurdle.

Emma Raducanu, the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam, has declared: "It's a great feeling to be back home.”

Simona Halep has married her long-time boyfriend in a small civil ceremony in her hometown of Constanta on the Black Sea on Wednesday.

It seems a decision made by coach Craig Tyzzer could have contributed to Ash Barty’s early departure from the US Open last week, although fatigue was also a factor after the Aussie won the title in Cincinnati ahead of Flushing Meadows.

The ITF has announced the schedule for the Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Finals 2021 to be held at the O2 Arena in Prague from 1-6 November.

Who reading this, even those who may not have affection for or affiliation with the game of tennis, could have failed to be mesmerised by the recent Raducanu journey, which concluded with her becoming the first ever qualifier to win one of the game’s primary sporting...