The WTA 125 Trophée Clarins in Paris is coming to conclusion on Sunday with a captivating final to follow between a top seed and absolute star of the whole field Madison Keys and home representative Diane Parry. The American made into final after a thrilling battle with seventh seed Yuliia Starodubtseva, while Diane Parry moved past the qualifier Alina Charaeva in two fascinating sets ended up in tiebreaks.
Keys takes revenge with a quality comeback
Madison Keys and Yuliia Starodubtseva have played just two times between each other and this were two sparkling battles in semifinals of Charleston Open at the start of April and now there in Paris. The tournament in North Carolina was a career's breakthrough for the Ukrainian who made into big final, scoring the upset over Keys in penultimate match. Starodubtseva has won it with a commanding performance in straight sets. Today's battle started exactly in same way and first set ended up with exact same score like 6 weeks ago. The Ukrainian has quickly ran away with the score and won first set by 6-1, breaking Keys three times. The American won less than half of first services. Starodubtseva has excelled with all 7 second serve points won which helped her to deny any danger in own games and comfortably take the major advantage with a set on the scoreline. Keys has forced a decider after second set where both the players had chances in the opening games, but the world number 19 has finally clicked the gear winning four games in a row to take it by 6-2.
Starodubtseva has showed this week, that her performance can fluctuate very much between the sets, or even with a series of few games during quarterfinal against Katie Volynets. The world number 103 won the second set where Starodubtseva lost all her service games, but then the Ukrainian has smashed her opponent in decisive part. Third set against Keys looked like the repetition of this trend. This was a fascinating battle with every game getting decided on the edge. The world number 57 has moved up 3-0 with a single break. Fourth game was a turning point for the whole match, and possibly for the outcome of whole tournament. Keys started her service game in a shaky way, being 15-40 down. The double break was more than close, but the Australian Open champion from last year found a way to come back almost from nowhere to get the crucial hold. Starodutseva has almost turned off since then. She lost the next two tight games and Keys gained boost of confidence coming back level on scoreline. The favorite has dominated the last games to finally win it by 1-6 6-2 6-3, taking the revenge for previous loss and making the job done making to the final as a top seed.
Parry advances to final and comes back to top 100
French fans will surely cheer on their home favorite in the final, as Diane Parry made it into title match after exciting two sets against qualifier Alina Charaeva. The Russian had an opportunity to serve for first set, but missed the chance in 12th game. Parry has quickly build the advantage in tiebreak, but needed 4 setpoints to win it by 8-6. Second set has surprisingly not delivered any breaks, moving to another 13th game. This time, Charaeva was on the front foot leading by 6-3, but Parry displayed a great performance winning 5 points in a row to repeat the score from first set and take it all by 7-6(6) 7-6(6). At the end, the French was a dominant force in regular games, producing 28 pressure points to 13 faced in own service games. Both the players showed the inconsistencies on serve, being able to score aces and commit the significant amount of double faults. Parry fired 7 aces in compare to 5 DFs, while Charaeva made 7 double faults to 4 aces scored. The French player comes back to top 100, being ranked at least 98th according to live ranking at the end of Saturday.
Final preview
Madison Keys is an obvious favorite due to the discrepancy of rankings and experience. Although, both the finalists displayed impressive resilience and grit in crucial and tough moments faced during Saturday's semis. Keys and Parry has met once, a few weeks ago during Miami Open, when Keys has expectedly won by 6-3 6-4. The difference is also displayed in the performance metrics for the matches played during this week in Paris. The French player has played once match less than her opponent due to getting walkover from Yulia Putintseva before the quarterfinals. With the sample given, Keys has a significant advantage in most of the return metrics - the American won almost half of return games (49% to 37% won by Parry).
Keys attacks first serve of her opponents with efficiency of 48% points. Parry can be a difficult opponent to crush there, as she recorded 68% first serve points this week, 3% more than Keys. The attacking approach of the American is reflected in pressure points creation - stunning 3.21 on average per game in compare to 2.09 achieved by Parry. The French takes her opportunities very well, winning 57% of breakpoint chances on return to just 40% from Keys.
