Francesca Curmi reaches doubles final in Cyprus tennis tournament

Maltese player is partnered by Greece’s Despina Papamichail.

Francesca Curmi will be vying for first place when she will partner Despina Papamichail in the doubles final at the Alaminos-Larnaca Tournament, on Saturday.

The winning pair will be facing a couple composed of Switzerland’s Leonie Kung and Eliz Maloney, representing the United Kingdom.

The Maltese and Greek player advanced to the final after beating the duo formed by Germany’s Ella Seidel and Ksenia Zaytseva of Russia 6-1, 6-4.

They had previously eliminated China’s Xuanyu Chen and home player Lygia Christodoulou 6-1, 6-1.

As it stands, Curmi currently sits 311th in the WTA rankings with 224 points.

Her Greek partner is in the 260th position while Saturday’s opponents are in 334th – Kung and 884th – Maloney.

The Maltese tennis player, on her part, is at the back of a prestigious victory over Vera Zvonavera in the singles category with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 score.

Zvonavera, now 39, is a former world number two players and a winner of 12 WTA Tour single titles.

In her prime, the Russian player had reached the 2008 WTA Tour Championships final, the 2010 Wimbledon final and the US Open final of the same year.

Her decorated resume includes also a bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Meanwhile, a group of four female players will form Malta’s contingent at the upcoming Billi Jean King Cup commitments.

Helene Pellicano, Elaine Genovese, Emma Montebello and Betha-Anne Mayo are Malta’s nominations captained by Maltese tennis hall of famer Helen Asciak.

The competition will be held in Lithuania between April 8 and April 13 with Malta set to feature in Group 2 of the Europe/Africa zone.

Eleven nations will take part in this section and there will be one pool of three teams (Pool A) and two pools of four teams (Pools B and C).

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Kosovo, Lithuania, Morocco, North Macedonia and Malta forms this Group 2.

The winners of each pool will compete in a round-robin, with the top two teams winning promotion to Europe/Africa Group I in 2025.

The second-placed teams in the pool stage will play in a round-robin for position.

The third-placed teams will also compete in a round-robin to determine final positions.

The teams finishing bottom in Pools B and C will be relegated to their respective Group III event (either Europe III or Africa III) in 2025.