Sara Sorribes Tormo has clinched her second career's WTA title, by defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova in a final match of the WTA 250 Tennis in The Land event played in Cleveland. The Spaniard performed an impressive run in the tournament, where she got her place in main draw as a lucky loser.
Road to the final
Before the final match, Sorribes Tormo has lost just two sets in Cleveland, both during the final round of qualifying, where she lost to Clara Burel. After getting into main draw as a lucky loser, the Spaniard showed an comprehensive performance during whole the week, advancing into final without losing a single set in all her main draw matches. Sorribes Tormo has played against another in-form player - Tatjana Maria, in the semifinals. The German was in a sensational form in recent month, approaching this clash with 10 wins scored in last 11 matches played on hard courts. The Spaniard was a slight pre-match favorite related to odds though, and made her job done well, winning by 6-4 6-3.
Ekaterina Alexandrova was the only one seeded player, who stayed in the contention after quarterfinals. The 4th seed gave away just one set on the road to final, during the tough battle against Xin Yu Wang in the quarters. Alexandrova has earned her place in the final after defeating another Chinese player in semis. The Russian defeated Lin Zhu by 7-5 6-2 to get just one match close from a title.
Comeback win to earn the title
Alexandrova was a slight pre-match favorite with an odd 1.69 for the win. The 4th seed, ranked more than 70 places higher in the WTA list than her opponent, started the match from a front foot as expected. Despite losing the serve in opening game, Alexandrova has dominated the rest of first set, winning it by 6-3. The Russian was more than close to win the whole thing in straight sets after gaining the break in 5th game of second set and leading by 4-2 after following game. While having this final under apparent control, Alexandrova has dropped the ball with a great comeback performed by Sorribes Tormo in the decisive moments of second set. The Spaniard gained a break to love in 8th game, which leveled the score. After performing crucial hold in 9th game, where Alexandrova had a breakpoint chance to get the advantage back on her side, Sorribes Tormo earned another break to complete the turnover in the set, won by her 6-4 after 4 games won in a row.
The world's number 22 has seeemingly regrouped well after slipping the chance away in second set, as she started the decider from the 3-1 lead earned after quite an easy break gained in 3rd game. Sorribes Tormo has not give up though and came back from being a break down again, winning 5 out of 6 following games and breaking her favorized opponent 3 times in a row. The Spaniard has created 4 matchpoints during Alexandrova's serve within a score 4-5 and converted the 4th one to take the title with a final score 3-6 6-4 6-4.
Ranking movements
Sara Sorribes Tormo gains a big boost in the WTA rankings, moving up from 95th into 55th place thanks to her title run in Cleveland. The points earned by reaching out the final help Ekaterina Alexandrova to comes back into world's top 20, as the Russian lifts up by two places. Both the finalists head into New York to compete in the US Open Championships. Sorribes Tormo plays against the 28th seed Anhelina Kalinina in the opening round. Alexandrova is the 22th seed there and starts her Grand Slam campaign from a match against Leylah Fernandez.
