American McCartney Kessler stunned No. 1 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil on Saturday, shaking off a brutal first set for a 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory in the final of Tennis in the Land in Cleveland.
It was Kessler’s first career WTA Tour title.
Kessler thrived as an underdog in the tournament, ousting No. 4 seed Xinyu Wang of China and No. 5 seed Anastasia Potapova of Russia before completing the upset of Haddad Maia.
On Saturday, Kessler didn’t get into a groove until the second set, where she took six games in a row after falling behind 1-0. The 25-year-old then trailed 3-1 in the third set before rallying for the win over Haddad Maia, who entered the match ranked No. 23 in the world.
Kessler won 32 of 46 first-serve points and matched Haddad Maia in aces and double faults with three and four, respectively.
Abierto GNP Seguros
Sixth-seeded Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic won her first career WTA Tour title, defeating New Zealand’s Lulu Sun 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the final in Monterrey, Mexico.
After trailing 6-5 in the first set, Sun forced a tiebreaker, where she let a 6-4 lead slip away as the 19-year-old Noskova broke Sun twice, with the second break giving her the set.
At 2-2 in the second set, Noskova broke Sun’s serve and held off a comeback attempt by the unseeded New Zealander, who was playing in her first WTA Tour final. Sun, 23, produced 13 aces to Noskova’s four but committed five double faults.
–Field Level Media
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