Spaniard Nuria Parrizas Diaz claimed the third WTA 125 title of her career at the Workday Canberra International on Saturday night when she defeated Britain’s Harriet Dart, 6-4 6-3, in the final.
The trophy match took an hour and 36 minutes at the Canberra Tennis Center for the 32-year old to triumph.
Parrizas Diaz hit a career-high of No 45 in March 2022, but struggled with injuries in 2023, missing two months between Wimbledon and the US Open that caused her to slip down to 123 this week.
The Spaniard dropped just one set en route to her biggest title on outdoor hard courts, defeating No 5 seed Kamilla Rakhimova from Russia, 6-4 0-6 6-3, in the 2nd-round, while her run also included a 1st-round win over fast-rising 18-year-old Swiss, Celine Naef, 6-3 6-1, a retirement by Frenchwoman Oceane Dodin, the 3rd seed at 6-2, 3-1, and a 6-4 7-6(3) semi-final victory over heavy-hitting Clara Tauson from Denmark.
No 120-ranked Dart needed to go to the distance in 3 out of 4 matches to reach her first WTA 125 final.
The unseeded 27-year-old came through 3-6 6-4 6-3 against Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam in her opener and ousted 6th seed Wang Yafan from China, 6-3 1-6 6-1, in round 2 before upsetting the No 2 seed, Nao Hibino from Japan, 6-3 6-0 in the quarter-finals.
In the semi-finals, Dart triumphed in the longest match of the tournament, defeating American Katie Volynets, 7-5 3-6 7-5, over 3 hours and 14 minutes.
In the final, Parrizas Diaz landed 68% of her first serves and won 73% of those points, while she saved 4 out of the 5 break points she faced, and captured the Dart serve 4 times, limiting the Briton to just 36% of second-serve points won.
Parrizas Diaz’s trio of WTA 125 trophies have all come on different surfaces, having previously won the title at Bastad on clay and Columbus on indoor hard courts in 2021, the year she became the 5th-oldest player to debut in the Top 100 since the start of the WTA Rankings.
Harriet Dart enjoyed a successful week in Canberra to reach the final of the WTA 125 event
Tennis ACT/WTAtennis.com
21-year old Tauson put together another positive week as she bids to re-establish herself in the Top 100.
The Dane reached a career-high of 33 in 2022 after winning her first two Hologic WTA Tour titles the previous year, but has struggled with injuries since.
In Canberra, Tauson took out top-seeded Viktorija Golubic from Switzerland, 6-2 6-4, in the 1st-round, and took that momentum all the way to the semi-finals.
On her debut on the WTA Tour, 17-year old Aussie wild-card Maya Joint made it to the quarter-finals in Canberra
Tennis ACT/WRAtennis.com
Teenage wild-card Maya Joint enjoyed the best week of her young career so far on home soil.
The 17-year-old, making her debut at WTA 125 level, upset the No 8 seed, Italy’s Sara Errani, 6-2 6-3, in the 1st-round and backed that up by defeating fellow teen Ella Seidel from Germany, 5-7 6-3 6-4, to make the quarters, the first two Top 200 wins of her career.
Ranked 684, Joint’s run was ended by Tauson, 6-4 6-2, in the Last 8, but the US-born Australian will get another opportunity to show off her skills after receiving a wild-card to Australian Open qualifying this coming week.
2024 Canberra 125 doubles champions Darja Semenistaja & Veronika Erjavec
Tennis ACT/WTAtennis.com
The unseeded duo of Veronika Erjavec & Darja Semenistaja lifted the doubles trophy after defeating home pair Kaylah McPhee & Astra Sharma, 6-2 6-4, in the final.
Slovenia’s Erjavec & Semenistaja from Latvia were playing together for the first time.
The title was the 21-year-old Semenistaja’s first at WTA 125 level, and Erjavec’s second, the 24-year-old having been the 2023 Iasi 125 champion alongside Dalila Jakupovic.
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