Emerson Jones has collected her third title on home soil and reached a career-high ranking after denying former world No.31 Zhu Lin in Brisbane at the weekend.
At her home training base at the Queensland Tennis Centre, the 17-year-old downed the Chinese third seed 6-4 7-5 for the W75 Australian Pro Tour trophy.
Arguably Jones’ toughest test of the week came in the semifinals when she prevailed in three sets after her compatriot and top seed Talia Gibson served for the match in the second set. The Queenslander also needed three sets to see off Japan’s Miho Kuramochi in the quarterfinals.
Brisbane 2 was her fourth ITF title after Sydney in 2024 and Fukuoka and Playford – the latter of which earned her an Australian Open wildcard – last year.
“It feels great, I had a great week this week and also last week (quarterfinals in Brisbane 1), but it feels great to get the title here,” Jones said.
Only a month ago at the same venue, Jones overcame a 21-year age gap to win her Brisbane International opener against world No.43 Tatjana Maria. The win was her second over a top-50 opponent.
Jones’ Brisbane 2 title boosted her 18 spots to a career-high world No.144 and was another big step toward her end-of-season ranking goal.
“Just going to try get my women’s ranking up. I got inside the top 150 at the start of this year but dropped out of it. I think I got back in it (now), so always the goal is top 100.”
Alex Bolt fell just short of making it an Aussie sweep of the singles titles after he fell to China’s former world No.31 Zhang Zhizhen 6-2 6-4 in the Brisbane 2 ATP Challenger final.
In the women’s doubles final, second seeds Natsumi Kawagushi of Japan and Australia’s Sara Saito defeated all-Aussie duo Gabriella Da Silva Fick and Tenika McGiffin 6-2 6-4.
In an all-Australian men’s doubles final, second seeds Jake Delaney and Marc Polmans eased past third seeds Matt Hulme and Kody Pearson 6-2 6-3.
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