Veronika Erjavec Reaches Huizhou Final, Hits Career-Best Ranking

veronika erjavec reached the WTA 125 final in Huizhou, China, and the run pushed her to the best WTA ranking of her career. The reward came with a compressed travel window, because Rome qualifying begins on Monday and she said she can be there no earlier than 14:00.

Huizhou Final Against Katarzyna Kawa

Erjavec will play Katarzyna Kawa of Poland in the final, with the match set to start around 9:00 a.m. local time. That timing leaves little margin for a player trying to move from southern China to the start of a WTA 1000 qualifying draw in Italy.

The ranking jump places her in the 75th to 90th place range on the WTA list, a new level for the Slovenian. It is the clearest marker from the Huizhou week: the result delivered points and position, not just another deep run.

Sašo Pistotnik and the China Travel Race

Erjavec and her coach Sašo Pistotnik chose to stay in China despite the logistics. The nearest airport to Huizhou is in Hangzhou, and that drive takes two hours, which makes the trip to Rome more of a race than a routine transfer.

Erjavec wrote to the WTA office and laid out her situation, saying in Slovenian: “Poslala sem elektronsko pošto v WTA pisarno in jim pojasnila svoj položaj ter da sem lahko v Rimu najhitreje ob 14. uri v ponedeljek”. Pistotnik described the trade-off plainly: there was no perfect scenario, only stress on one side or the other.

Rome, Parma, and Last September

Last September, Erjavec won back-to-back tournaments in China, first in Changsha and then in Huizhou, so this swing has already been productive for her. Before the next major point in the season, she is also scheduled to play in Parma at another WTA 125 tournament.

For now, the immediate issue is simple. Huizhou gave her the ranking of her career, but it also forced a tight handoff from one event to the next, with Monday’s Rome qualifying start waiting on the other end.