In the space of a single week, autumn in Chișinău seemed to turn the calendar forward by a month. The first women’s W15 tournament took place in warm, dry and windless weather. The second, held on the clay courts of the National Tennis Centre from 12 to 18 October 2026, greeted the players with rain, leaden skies and cold gusts of wind. A week earlier, they had been playing in summer conditions; now it felt almost like winter.
Temperatures of around ten degrees Celsius became the norm throughout the competition. The opening day’s play fell victim to rain, with matches postponed to the following days. For the organisers, that meant revising the schedule; for the players, staying ready to compete and adapting to the new conditions. The lost time was recovered: despite the poor weather at the start, the tournament finished on schedule.
Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas was the standout player of the week. The winner of the previous W15 in Chișinău claimed the singles title again and teamed up with Ekaterina Agureeva to win the doubles title as well. For Moldovan tennis, the main highlight was Lia Belibova and Arina Gamretkaia’s run to the doubles final.
Just one set dropped
Fifth seed Dorofeeva-Rybas opened her campaign with a 6:2, 6:2 victory over Serbia’s Mirjana Jovanovic. But she had to come from behind as early as the second round. Türkiye’s Defne Cirpanli took the opening set 6:4, putting the Russian’s winning run in doubt.
Dorofeeva-Rybas responded emphatically, winning the next two sets 6:3, 6:1. The set she lost to Cirpanli would be the only one the eventual champion dropped throughout the singles tournament.
Her quarter-final opponent was Arina Gamretkaia. By then, the Moldovan had already recorded a notable win: after beating Iana Semichina 6:2, 6:2, she defeated fourth seed Zuzanna Bednarz of Poland 7:5, 6:4. Reaching the last eight was the best singles result by a Moldovan player that week.
Gamretkaia could not stop Dorofeeva-Rybas, losing 2:6, 1:6. The Russian then cleared another major hurdle, defeating top seed Kristina Kroitor 6:3, 6:4 in the semi-finals.
In the other half of the draw, Romania’s Giulia Safina Popa, seeded sixth, was making her way towards the title match. She needed three sets against Daniela Ciobanu in her opening match. The Moldovan levelled the contest at one set apiece, but Popa went on to win 6:1, 4:6, 6:1.
The Romanian then defeated compatriot Iulia Maria Buculei 6:2, 6:3. Her quarter-final against second seed Andreea Prisacariu ended early when her opponent retired with Popa leading 6:3, 3:0. In the semi-finals, Popa beat Switzerland’s Sophie Luescher 6:2, 6:3.
The final brought Dorofeeva-Rybas another straight-sets victory, 6:2, 6:2. Five matches won, just one set dropped and a second consecutive singles title in Chișinău.
The Moldovan pair in the hunt for the trophy
The doubles tournament provided particular interest for the hosts. Lia Belibova and Arina Gamretkaia reached the final without dropping a set.
In the first round, the Moldovan pair defeated Maria Mikhailova and Maria Pankratova 6:3, 6:4. In the quarter-finals, Belibova and Gamretkaia beat Iulia Maria Buculei and Anastasiia Nikolaieva 6:4, 6:2. They were especially convincing in their semi-final against Mirjana Jovanovic and Kristina Kroitor, winning 6:1, 6:0.
Three matches, six sets won — and a chance to compete for the title on home courts.
Across the net in the final stood Ekaterina Agureeva and Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas. Their route had been far less straightforward. In the opening round, they had to rescue their match against third seeds Defne Cirpanli and Kateryna Diatlova. After losing the first-set tie-break, the Russians won the second set and then dominated the deciding tie-break to prevail 6:7 (5:7), 6:2, [10:1].
In the quarter-finals, Agureeva and Dorofeeva-Rybas defeated the Moldovan pair Natalia Drobca / Julia Helbet 6:2, 6:2. The semi-finals brought a meeting with top seeds Melinda Biro of Hungary and Astrid Wanja Brune Olsen of Norway. Once again, they had to recover after losing the first set, and once again a match tie-break settled the contest: 2:6, 6:3, [10:2] in favour of Agureeva and Dorofeeva-Rybas.
In the final, Belibova and Gamretkaia narrowly lost the opening set 5:7. The Russians also came out on top in the second, taking it 6:3.
Ekaterina Agureeva and Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas therefore won the doubles final 7:5, 6:3. Belibova and Gamretkaia finished their home tournament as runners-up, while Dorofeeva-Rybas completed a title double.
The wins that shaped the week
There were other matches involving Moldovan players that also deserved attention. In the opening round of the singles tournament, Lia Belibova comfortably defeated Milana Maslenkova 6:1, 6:0 before losing to Andreea Prisacariu. Eva Iurina, who came through qualifying, fought a close match against Astrid Wanja Brune Olsen, with the Norwegian eventually winning 6:1, 2:6, 7:5.
In the doubles draw, Iurina and Iana Semichina turned their opening match around against Alina Nesmianovych and Fanny Pire to win 1:6, 6:3, [10:7]. Drobca and Helbet also started with a victory, beating Aliesia and Ilzie Reva 7:5, 6:1.
For Moldova’s players, the week brought a singles quarter-final, a doubles final and a series of victories on home courts. The opportunity to progress through several rounds of a professional tournament in front of their own supporters was an important part of the competition in Chișinău.
The second W15 will be remembered for its abrupt change of scenery: the warmth belonged to the previous week, while the players faced rain, cold and wind. But after the enforced break, matches resumed, the tournament finished on time, and its main sporting highlights were Dorofeeva-Rybas’s two titles and the impressive performance of the Moldovan pairing of Belibova and Gamretkaia.
