Camila Osorio, boosted by her home crowd, landed her second title at the Copa Colsanitas Zurich in Bogotá on Sunday, when she upset top seed Marie Bouzkova 6-3, 7-6(5) in the final.
I’ve been struggling a lot the last few years with injuries and other things. But now that I get my second title, it’s just an amazing feeling for me, a relief also. I know I need to keep working harder. There are other things I still want to do in tennis. Camila Osorio
Coming through on home soil in Colombia once more, Osorio first lifted the trophy, her first on the Hologic WTA Tour, in 2021, and was determined to do so again.
Ranked 85 and seeded 6th, Osorio enjoyed a resurgent week in Bogotá after a slow start to the season, and she arrived home looking to win back-to-back matches for the first time this year.
As it happened, she lost just one set this week on her way to the title.
“I’ve been struggling a lot the last few years with injuries and other things,” Osorio told WTA Insider. “But now that I get my second title, it’s just an amazing feeling for me, a relief also.
“I know I need to keep working harder. There are other things I still want to do in tennis.”
In addition to uposetting the top seed on Sunday, the 22-year-old from Cucuta also ended 2nd-seed and two-time defending champion Tatjana Maria’s 14-match Bogota winning streak in the quarter-finals, while, in the semi-finals, she knocked out Sara Errani in straight sets.
“Everything clicked after the match against Tatjana,” Osorio said, “because she beat me in Australia, and she was the champion before, and she beat me 6-1 in the first set.
“The Colombian fans helped me throughout the whole week. They were always pulling me up, giving me positive vibes.”
Since becoming the first Colombian to win the US Open girls’ title in 2019, the national spotlight has been both a gift and a curse for Osorio.
Two years later, when she stunned the field in Bogotá to win the title as a 180th-ranked wild-card, Osaorio’s status as a national hero continued to soar.
While she quietly struggled with injuries, her ranking began to dip, and, after reaching a career-high of 33 in 2022, she finished the last two seasons hovering around 80 mark.
She has worked hard to put her injuries behind her, and learned to inject more aggression into her game, all of which paid off this week in Bogotá’s altitude, where Osorio was more than happy to play the role of the aggressor.
“I remember, three years ago, I won this title, but I was just running around the court, and I wasn’t really doing anything with my shots,” Osorio said. “I worked a lot on my conditioning, and when I became a little bit stronger, I try to generate a little more with my shots with my forehand. I try to hit as many forehands as possible.”
Maria Bouzkova was seeking her first clay court title but was thwarted by home favourite Camila Osorio in the Bogotá final
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In Sunday’s final, she was looking for her first career win over Bouzkova, who is ranked 42 in the world, and had yet to win more than 4 games against the consistent and versatile Czech.
Bouzkova was also playing her first final of the season, having booked her spot with wins over Rebecca Marino, Hailey Baptiste, Laura Siegemund and Kamilla Rakhimova.
With the capacity crowd firmly rooted in her corner, Osorio rebounded from an early break to ease through the first set, and then extended that lead to a set and a break at 2-0 in the second before Bouzkova worked her way back.
When a soft service game from Bouzkova handed Osorio the break and a chance to serve out the win at 6-5, the Czech engineered a gritty, scampering match-point save to stay in the match, and converted her 4th break point chance to force matters into a tiebreak.
A backhand miss from Bouzkova gave Osorio Championship Points at 6-4 in the breaker, but a nervous double fault saw the first evaporate, before the Colombian used her baseline power to push the Czech from corner to corner on No 3, and sealed the win after an hour and 55 minutes.
Osorio finished the match with 26 winners to 27 unforced errors, while Bouzkova struck 16 winners to her 25 miscues.
She also converted 50%, 4 of 8, of her break-point chances, compared to Bouzkova’s 33.3%, that is 3 of 9.
“This week I was just enjoying being here, being able to play at home,” Osorio said. “Two years ago I wanted to win, but I felt so much pressure because I wanted to do well, and I did well the week before in Monterrey.
“This time it was different. I enjoyed tennis again.”
Cristina Bucsa & Kamilla Rakhimova defeated Anna Bondar & Irina Khromacheva in a final set breaker to lift the Bogotá trophy on Sunday
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Spain’s Cristina Bucsa & Kamilla Rakhimova from Russia defeated Hungarian Anna Bondar & Irina Khromacheva, also Russian, 7-6(5) 3-6 [10-8] in the doubles final and lifted their first WTA trophy as a team.
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