Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/1491441
ITF WORLD TENNIS TOUR ITF World Winter 2022/23 29 When Czech Sara Bejlek, just a few days off her 16th birthday, stepped onto the hard courts at the W25 tournament in Monastir, Tunisia, in January 2022, she had new dreams and goals for the season to come. She'd performed well in 2021 on both the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and the professional ITF World Tennis Tour. She'd won several junior titles, been part of the Czech team that lifted the Junior Billie Jean King Cup trophy and claimed the first pro title of her career on home soil at W60 Olomouc. Monastir was to be a good week for Bejlek, at the start of what turned into a fantastic 2022 for the Czech teenager as a budding pro on the ITF World Tennis Tour. She reached the semi-finals in the North African resort, marking her best performance at an overseas tournament. Bejlek went on to win her first professional title of the season at W25 Santa Margherita de Pula, Italy in May. A second title followed at the higher-level W60 Ceska Lipa in June; a third in defence of her title at W60 Olomouc in July. She also briefly dipped back into junior competition at Roland Garros, winning the girls' doubles title with Lucie Havlickova and reaching the singles semi-finals. By June, Bejlek had boosted her ranking high enough to enter qualifying for Grand Slam tournaments. She was unsuccessful at Wimbledon but reached the US Open main draw before losing in the first round. Bejlek spent the rest of 2022 playing a mix of ITF World Tennis Tour and WTA 125 events, and finished the season ranked No. 189, a jump of 196 places since the start of 2022. "The ITF World Tennis Tour has helped me develop my game a lot," Bejlek said in August ahead of her US Open breakthrough. "I have had a good start in professional tennis and over time I am starting to compete against better players. We will see what happens in the coming seasons." What has happened so far in 2023 is that Bejlek successfully qualified for the Australian Open, losing in the first round to compatriot and sometime hitting partner Barbora Krejcikova. The future looks bright but, as she says, it also remains to be seen. Joanne Burnham reports on the latest improvements to the ITF World Tennis Tour and international player pathway, in particular the focus on creating equal opportunity for women to become professional players. Czech Republic's Sara Bejlek competed in the first round of the 2023 Australian Open as a qualifier