In a nation where soccer and basketball largely dominates, Cagla Buyukakcay brought a nation together in capturing the first ever WTA title in Turkish tennis history, winning the BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup. With her title win, she catapults herself into the World’s Top 85, but what does this title win mean for the future of tennis in Turkey?
Just a week ago, the interest and value of Turkish Tennis barely existed, but as Cagla Buyukakcay continued to ride the momentum and deliver great match wins and achieve the unthinkable, it successfully encouraged the people of Turkey to take interest in tennis on a considerable larger scale. From a professional standpoint, you rarely see someone as diligent in their craft than Cagla Buyukakcay; she’s been a tremendous professional for years, but the main improvement she’s made has been the mental perspective of the game of tennis. This can be attributed to Buyukakcay’s way of approaching tennis and also the assistance of her long-time coach Can Uner, who has made considerable contributions to all aspects of the game of Cagla Buyukakcay.
Her great qualities on a tennis court is something that many tennis fans around the world can easily buy into, as her continuous hard work really translates to what she has to offer on a tennis court. Buyukakcay is a great athlete that will chase down any ball deemed a lost cause, has a terrific backhand down the line and a top-spin forehand. But her fighting qualities are definitely the attributes that set her apart from many of the other players and now her results are starting to reflect that also.
Cagla Buyukakcay will now play the first Grand Slam main draw of her career, but when looking at the bigger picture there is considerable reason to be optimistic for the future of Turkish Tennis in the hope for tennis being a must-see sport in a great nation. One way of looking at the situation of Turkish Tennis is that hopefully this milestone win for the nation can be a stepping stone for many other players to do the same and become successful at this level in professional tennis. Many forget that Istanbul has given Cagla Buyukakcay wild card entries into the tournament in the past, so success might not be as far away as many Turkish players originally think. Players like Ipek Soylu, who’s been given a lot of support and has played a lot of ITF tennis like Buyukakcay, can be influenced to take the next step in the right direction and this can even be related to the Turkish juniors of the world. The importance of a Turkish milestone result like this can encourage Turkish Juniors like Berfu Cengiz to work even harder just like Buyukakcay has shown over the years. Anything is possible.
Another viewpoint of this win can be seen from an economical standpoint, the Istanbul Cup final saw a full-packed stadium in the closer seats and many rows filled in the cheaper seats–a ground-breaking sight for many proud tennis fans. The WTA Istanbul Cup of last year saw sparse crowds throughout the entire week, so it can be argued a memorable win of this kind has revitalized tennis in Turkey, but the goal now is for it to be sustainable. For tennis to become a regular conversation starter amongst families and for the younger generation to be encouraged to pick up their tennis racquets for the future.
Economically this win is significant for the tournament organizers; Turkish people finally starting buying into the tournament because of the success of Buyukakcay in singles and Ipek Soylu in doubles. This is valuable for the future of the tournament as a whole, as many believed they were on borrowed time on the tournament calendar, because of the lack of interest from regular sports followers. This could be the starting point where Turkey buys into the sport of tennis, without the desire for a very big name and that speaks volumes for how powerful this win was from Cagla Buyukakcay today.
Will tennis replace soccer as the main sport in Turkish Homes? Probably not, but it’s a starting point.
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