Truly (not) a B-solution! Defending champion Anna Bondar and French shooting star Lois Boisson will contest the final of the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open on Sunday. On the centre court at the Rothenbaum, it's not just about the prize money of 31565 euros. It's also about breaking a streak. Since the WTA tennis tournament at Hamburg's Rothenbaum was revived in 2021, there have always been different winners - the title has never been defended. Anna Bondar could now break this streak. The Hungarian beat Kaja Juvan (Slovenia) 5:7, 6:3 and 6:4 in three sets in the semi-final and will reach the final, as she did in 2024. There she will face Lois Boisson, who defeated second seed Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine) more clearly than expected with 6:1, 7:6.
Anna Bondar even has a double title defence in sight. Because four hours after the singles semi-final, she actually won alongside Hamburg 2023 winner Arantxa Rus (Netherlands) against the Austrian duo Julia Grabher/Sinja Kraus 4:6, 7:6 and 10:5 (match tie-break): They fended off a match point in the second set. After the singles final, the doubles final will be played on Sunday against the Ukrainian/Japanese pairing of Nadija Kichenok and Makoto Ninomiya.
The clay at the Rothenbaum is obviously a very profitable place for Bondar. She has never won a tournament of such high calibre at any other venue or in any other stadium in her career, and has only ever won titles at WTA Challenger level.
But the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open, as a 250-player tournament, is of a completely different calibre. World-class tennis is constantly on offer here. And Bondar delivers. This was also the case in the final round against Kaja Juvan. It was a largely even match in which Bondar was a touch more consistent in the last two sets: "The little things made the difference," says Bondar, who has gone three sets in three out of four matches here in Hamburg so far. "One important point is definitely that I'm physically fit," says Bondar. That's why she likes long, tough matches.
But now she is up against a similarly well-trained opponent: Lois Boisson. And she didn't play doubles and only needed two sets three times on her way to the singles final. Only the German Tamara Korpatsch forced her to play three sets.
It is the third duel between Bondar and Boisson - and the third on clay. In 2024, Boisson won the final in Bellinzona in three sets. Bondar had won the semi-final clash in Chiasso in two sets. That may be an indication of another very exciting clash. In short: the ambition - and the pressure - will be enormous on both sides of the net.
Boisson had dominated the semi-final against Yastremska with astonishing clarity. Boisson was completely dominant in the first set: 6:1. When she then took her opponent's serve in the second set and increased her lead to 2:0 games, Yastremska seemed to be beaten. However, she got a re-break at the last moment and levelled the score at 5:5. For a few moments, it looked as if the match could still tip over. But Boisson kept her cool ("I wasn't that calm on the court before") and converted her second match point in the tie-break to make it 7-5. Afterwards, she looked ahead to the final: "It will be a close match." That is also the lesson learnt from their previous duels against each other. Boisson wants the biggest title of her career. And Bondar wants to defend the biggest title of her career.
