American qualifier Alycia Parks pulled off a stunning upset at the Agel Open on Tuesday, powering past former World No.1 and homeland hope Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 7-6(3) in the opening round. Here are some numbers behind the 21-year-old's career-best win to date.
19: Parks' win over World No.19 Pliskova marks her first victory over a Top 20 player. Parks had played only one Top 20 player previously, which resulted in a loss to then-No.4 Ons Jabeur earlier this year in Berlin.
"This is my first Top 20 win, so I'm very grateful and thankful to get through the match today," the World No.144 Parks said on court afterward.
4: It is Parks' fourth career main-draw victory on the Hologic WTA Tour, and her first on hard court. Two of her previous tour-level wins were on clay and the third came on grass.
Parks is now 2-2 in her tour-level main-draw matches this season. Parks' previous main-draw win this year was over then-No.46 Zheng Qinwen in Berlin, which was her career-best win by ranking before Ostrava.
First Top 20 win of her career ✨
— wta (@WTA) October 4, 2022
Alycia Parks locks in the win over Pliskova, 6-0, 7-6(3)!#OstravaOpen pic.twitter.com/oRr0EJjRCO
6: Parks fired six aces during the match, while Pliskova, third-best in aces this season on tour, had none. The American's solid serving, where she won 72 percent of her first-service points, helped propel Parks to the 1-hour and 28-minute victory.
"[The serve] comes very natural for me, I want to thank my dad because he's the one who taught me," Parks said. "He always gave me a rhythm, kind of like dance, one-two. So that always stuck in the back of my mind."
84: But it was returning the Pliskova second serve where Parks truly shone, winning 84 percent of those points (16 of 19). That led to Parks going a perfect 5-for-5 on break points in the clash.
15: It was complete dominance in the first set for Parks, where she had 15 winners to Pliskova's one. Parks never faced a break point in the 27-minute opener.
8: In the second set, Pliskova led by a break at 3-1 before Parks reeled off four games in a row to reach 5-3. However, the Czech prevented Parks from serving out the match in that game, and the pair progressed to a tiebreak.
Parks, though, mounted an early lead in the breaker as well, and the American collected the win after Pliskova hit her eighth double fault on the first match point.
1: Parks is now just one win away from the first Hologic WTA Tour quarterfinal of her career. To get there, she will have to beat World No.7 Maria Sakkari in their second-round match. It will be the first meeting between Parks and Sakkari.