Camila Giorgi of Italy produced a stunning performance to win the fourth WTA Tour singles title of her career on Sunday night, battling past Swedish qualifier Rebecca Peterson 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-2 at the Merida Open.
After falling behind 2-0 in the third set, Giorgi battled back and eventually won the final six games of the match to win the match and improve to 3-1 all-time versus Peterson. Giorgi double-faulted on break point in the first set, giving Peterson a 4-3 advantage, but Peterson was unable to serve out the set at 5-4. Giorgi won four times in the tiebreak to take the lead by a set after 66 minutes, but Peterson saved a set chance at 6-5 with a forehand winner. However, Peterson won eight of the following nine games by forcing errors from Giorgi, who frequently hit hard from the forehand side. After that sequence of games, Peterson was up 2-0 in the third set and had a break advantage.
Giorgi, however, delivered the ultimate surprise by hitting powerful forehands to break Peterson twice in a row and take the lead 4-2. A third straight break of Peterson’s service was followed by a commanding love hold for 5-2, giving Giorgi the victory after he had won six successive games. Earlier on Sunday, Caty McNally and Diane Parry outplayed Wang Xinyu and Wu Fang-hsien 6-0, 7-5 in one hour and 12 minutes to claim the Merida Open doubles title.
McNally and Parry easily claimed 15 of 16 first-service points in the opening set and did not encounter a break point. Wang and Wu then brought the score closer, taking the opening break of the second set at 4-3, but McNally and Parry won the next four games to win.
With her eighth WTA victory in doubles, McNally is demonstrating her continued dominance on the court. This week in Merida, the American player, age 21, also advanced to her second WTA singles semifinal.