FILA player Ashleigh Barty could gain WTA World #1 ranking this week in the Cincinnati Masters. Photo supplied.
Author: Trudi du Toit0 Comments
Since the days that Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker set hearts racing on and off the tennis courts, FILA and tennis clothing and footwear have been a close match. This partnership continues today, especially on the women’s circuit, with several Top 30 ranked players wearing FILA in major tournaments across the world.
FILA’s Ashleigh Barty, Australian #1 Women’s Singles player, is the #1 seeded player at the 2019 Western & Southern Open, which starts today (12th August) in Cincinnati. Should she reach the semi-final, she could regain her World #1 ranking, recently lost to Naomi Osaka in Montreal. Barty moved to the World #2 spot after winning her maiden Grand Slam singles title at the French Open this year and her performance this week could earn her the top spot in the forthcoming US Open in New York (starting August 26th), the final Grand Slam event of the year.
In Paris Barty wore the special-edition P.L. Rolando Collection, which is a modern version of FILA’s first creative director Pierluigi Rolando’s archival sketches dating back to the early 2000s.
Another FILA WTA player, Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic, is current ranked #3 in the world as well as in Cincinnati and could also be a contender for the World #1 spot if she reaches the semi-finals. She is a former #1 world ranked player.
Last year’s winner in Cincinnati, Kiki Bertens, recently switched her clothing and footwear sponsor from Mizuno to FILA. The Netherlands champion is ranked #5 at the tournament this year.
FILA’s Timea Babos in June won her second Grand Slam title of the year at the French Open, which earned her the #2 WTA World doubles ranking. For most of 2018 she was ranked #1 in World doubles after she and her partner Kristina Mladenovic started the year with a victory at the Australian Open.
Other women in the WTA Top 100 rankings who wear FILA are Kateryna Kozlova, Sofia Kenin, Margarita Gasparyan, Laura Siegemund and Alison Van Uytvanck.
