After suffering an early exit at Wimbledon, Fran Jones has found form in Italy, winning two titles in a row.
She lost her first-round match on Court Three at SW19 in straight sets to Frenchwoman Diane Parry on June 29, but one month on, she has tasted glory twice.
Jones, from Oxenhope, was the third seed at the ATV Bancomat Open in Rome, beating home hopefuls Dalila Spiteri and Federica Urgesi to reach the quarters, having lost heavily to both players in the opening set.
From there, she defeated sixth seed Noma Noha Akugue of Germany 6-3, 6-1, then saw off France’s Martina Trevisan 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.
That put her into the final against fourth seed Lucia Bronzetti, the Italian roared on by the home crowd.
But Jones thrashed her 6-3, 6-1, sealing victory and the trophy in just 69 minutes.
After that triumph, she was back in WTA125 action when she made the trip to Sicily last week.
The Bradford District star was the top seed, and she came from a set down in the last eight to beat home favourite Jennifer Ruggeri 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Jones defeated young Russian Alevtina Ibragimova 6-3, 6-4 in the semis, pitting her against seventh seed Fiona Ferro in the final.
Unlike in Rome, Jones was pushed all the way for the title.
After winning the first set 6-0, her French opponent took the second 6-4.
The decider went to a tiebreak, which swung one way and then the other.
Jones led 2-0, before trailing 5-2 and saving a match point at 6-5 down.
She eventually won the tiebreaker 8-6 to claim a gutsy 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6) victory.
