2024 Thailand Open Crowns Diana Shnaider of Russia With Her Maiden WTA Title
The Russian prevailed against the defending champion in the final.
Diana Shnaider, 19, of Russia defeated defending champion Zhu Lin, 30, of China to win the Women’s Singles title at the 2024 Thailand Open in Hua Hin, Thailand (a WTA 250 event). The score in the final was 6-3, 2-6 and 6-1 in favor of Shnaider.
This was the second match Shnaider and Zhu have played against each other on the WTA Tour - with Shnaider winning their prior meeting. Today’s victory is the first title Shnaider has won on the 2024 WTA Tour and the first title of her career in single’s competition. Notably, she becomes the second player to win her first WTA title during the 2024 season - joining Emma Navarro of the United States.
Heading into this tournament, Zhu was ranked as the Number 45 tennis player on the 2024 WTA Tour, while Shnaider carried the Number 108 designation. By winning in Hua Hin, Shnaider has received 250 points in the overall rankings. Meanwhile, Zhu has picked up 163 points.
Zhu was the second seed in this year’s tournament. Zhu was looking to be the first player to win this event in consecutive years since it joined the WTA Tour in 2019. With Shnaider taking her maiden title here, the event will have four distinct champions in each competition that’s been held to date.
Shnaider arrived in the final after winning against Magda Linette of Poland (No. 56), Paula Badosa of Spain (No. 83), Dalma Gálfi of Hungary (No. 137), and Wang Xinyu of China (No. 40). To win the title, she had to prevail against the tournament’s first, second and third seeds.
In the other half of the main draw, Zhu defeated Taylah Preston of Australia (No. 199), Linda Fruhvirtová of the Czech Republic (No. 126), Arina Rodionova of Australia (No. 101), and Wang Yafan of China (No. 78). Notably, she didn’t play another seeded player during any round of the competition.
The revised rankings for the 2024 WTA Tour will be officially released on Monday, February 5. The tour will then play two tournaments between February 5 and 11: the Abu Dhabi Open in Abu Dhabi, UAE (a WTA 500 event) and the Transylvania Open in Cluj Napoca, Romania (a WTA 250 event). Both tournaments will be played on hard courts.
Belinda Bencic of Switzerland (No. 22) is the reigning champion at the Abu Dhabi Open. However, she is currently off the tour pregnant with her first child. Meanwhile, Tamara Korpatsch of Germany (No. 76) is the reigning champion at the Transylvania Open. She returns to the main draw this year as an unseeded player.