Alycia Parks won her first career's WTA title by defeating Caroline Garcia in Sunday's final match of Open 6e Sens Métropole de Lyon.
The 21 years-old American started her road to the final by prevailing in two difficult three-setters, but overcame her opponents in quarterfinal and semis with an easier way, defeating Danka Kovinic and Maryna Zanevska in straight sets. It looked simillary for Garcia, who was confidently running into the final with a dominant performance apart from just one set in the second round.
Garcia was a big favorite of this match, as the world number 5 was rated with an average odd 1.23 to grab the title in front of her home fans. The final against Parks was not as easy task as expected, and as it occured at the end, it was a task not to get done today at all. The match was a high-level tennis performance from both sides, especially in terms of serving. First set did not bring any breaks and was decided in a very tight super-tiebreak, won by Parks who gained the decisive mini-break and converted a set-point at once in 16th point of tie-break, winning it 9-7. Garcia was trying to recover in second set and put some pressure on the American, but it was Parks who gained the only one break in 12th game of second set, crossing the line with a trophy, winning the final match 7-6 7-5. Parks was clinical in the key points, as Garcia managed to create 4 breakpoints, but the American defended all of them, converting the only one but the most important one out of 3 chances created on her own in the last game of the match.
Alycia Parks achieves her career's highest rank apart from winning the maiden WTA title. The American will be knocking into top 50's door, as she will be ranked 51th from tomorrow. Caroline Garcia stays strong at the place of world's number 5 with 800 points gap behind her back right now.
