Panther Seguel Returns Home After European Tour

A four month stay on European soil provided a mixed bag of results for Chile’s top ranked women’s tennis player Daniela Seguel.

Having partnered in many of her successful doubles efforts with Argentina’s Tatiana Búa, it seemed the Trans-Andean neighbour had the expertise in the Chilean’s game, with Búa twice the victor in the two final Belgian tournaments of the tour.

The European journey, which included a stop at Wimbledon to break a drought of over 30 years and various finals appearances, including the Cagnes-Sur-Mer $100,000 tournament in France. What proved elusive though was a title. Seguel’s trophy cabinet has not been added to in the singles since 2012, while 2013 saw five doubles titles. The “Panther” hasn’t been able to add to that count as yet, but will have for improved performances on the South American circuit.

Though La Pantera won’t return home with any trophies, she did contest four doubles finals along the way. Her most recent finals outing was the Wanferece-Baulet tournament in Belgium, teaming up with Búa but coming unstuck in the final. Her previous finals appearance was alongside Dutch player Cindy Burger in Maribor, Slovenia.

That tournament had followed on from the finals appearance at the Strasbourg WTA event, where Seguel and Búa were knocked over by Grand Slam regulars, the Australian duo of Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty. The two had teamed up to reach the finals at three Grand Slam events in 2013, but were unable to take the title in any of them.

With the priority on doubles, having reached a ranking of 110 and currently ranked 114, there has been little time for development of the singles aspect. Having to play through the qualifying tournaments to reach the Main Draw of the higher level events her doubles rankings allow her to enter, the Chilean “Panther” has been able to pass the first round in any of the individual events during her tour.

Seguel is still top of the table in the Chilean rankings, having dropped from her career best 257, to the current 285. A rejuvenated Andrea Koch is pushing her way back up the rankings, currently in 319. Fernanda Brito (423), Cecilia Costa (509) and Ivania Martinich (780) round out the top 5.

Coach Juan Pablo Abarca believed that the efforts and new knowledge from the European travels would have their payoff sooner rather than later.

@danielaseguel3 todo tu esfuerzo y aprendizaje de estos meses tendrán su recompensa muy pronto. Eres grande Pantera! pic.twitter.com/4d1LAsD4tl

— juan pablo abarca (@abarcateam) August 27, 2014

With four months remaining in the year, there is still time for the “Panther” to add to her trophy collection, as well as improve on the ranking in both singles and doubles. Her experience playing in the bigger tournaments will only be a positive for Chilean tennis in the future.

Tags: Daniela Seguel, tennis