Renata Zarazua, the No 2 seed from Mexico, outlasted top-seeded Diane Parry, of France, 7-5 3-6 6-4 in Sunday’s final of the Montevideo Open WTA 125 in Uruguay.
The World No 128 was twice down a break in the final set before rallying for the 2-hour and 45-minute win over the 94th-ranked Parry on the clay courts of the Uruguayan capital city.
With the come-back win, 26-year-old Zarazua takes home the first WTA 125 title of her career, having previously been a runner-up on the hard courts of WTA 125 Concord, losing that final to Magdalena Frech from Poland.
Zarazua moves up to a new career-high ranking of No 105 in Monday’s update after cruising through her first 3 rounds this week, but she had to survive a battle in Saturday’s semi-finals when the Mexican led Maria Lourdes Carle 4-1 in the 3rd set before the Argentine surged and served for the match at 5-4, but the 2nd seed rebounded by winning the next 3 games to advance to the final.
Sunday’s final was similarly back-and-forth, when, at 5-4, Parry was 2 points away from winning the first set, but Zarazua used some well-timed drop-shots to stay in the opener and built a 6-5 lead.
On her first set point, Zarazua cranked a backhand winner to steal the one-set lead, and, in the second, she was a point away from a 4-1 lead, but Parry’s forehand clicked into gear at that stage.
The Frenchwoman, who won the inaugural Montevideo title in 2021, fired a number of winners from her forehand wing to reel off 5 straight games and snatched the second set to level.
Parry eased to a 3-1 lead in the third, but a forehand miscue into the net allowed Zarazua to level terms at 3-3.
From there, Zarazua moved ahead 5-4, where a rally backhand winner gave the Mexican her first championship point, and when a Parry backhand found the net, the Mexican landed the highest-level title of her career.
In Saturday’s Montevideo Open doubles final, the unseeded all-Argentine pairing of Carle & Julia Riera defeated Britain’s Freya Christie and Yuliana Lizarazo from Colombia, No 4 seeds, 7-6(5) 7-5, to claim the title.
Carle & Riera beat 3 seeded teams on their way to the title, and they did not drop a set in all 4 of their wins over the week, taking an hour and 44 minutes to topple Christie & Lizarazo in the final.
Carle is on an 8-match winning streak in doubles, having won 2 WTA 125 doubles titles in a two-week span, having won her first career WTA 125 doubles title alongside Greece’s Despina Papamichail in Buenos Aires the previous week.
As for Riera, this is her first career WTA 125 title.
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