Zarazua outlasts top seed Parry to win WTA 125 Montevideo title

No.2 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico captured the WTA 125 Montevideo Open singles title by edging past No.1 seed Diane Parry 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in Sunday's final.

World No.128 Zarazua was twice down a break in the final set before rallying for a 2-hour and 45-minute victory over 94th-ranked Parry on the clay courts of the Uruguayan capital city.

With the comeback win, 26-year-old Zarazua takes home the first WTA 125 title of her career. She had previously been a runner-up on the hard courts of WTA 125 Concord, losing that final to Magdalena Frech.

Zarazua also moves up to a new career-high ranking of No.105 in Monday's update.

Zarazua cruised through her first three rounds this week, but she had to survive a battle in Saturday's semifinals. In that clash, Zarazua led Maria Lourdes Carle 4-1 in the third set before Carle surged and served for the match at 5-4. Zarazua rebounded by winning the next three games to advance to the final.

Sunday's final was similarly back-and-forth. At 5-4, Parry was two points away from winning the first set, but Zarazua used some well-timed drop shots to stay in the opener and build a 6-5 lead. On her first set point, Zarazua cranked a backhand winner to steal the one-set lead.

In the second set, Zarazua was a point away from a 4-1 lead, but Parry's forehand clicked into gear at that stage. The Frenchwoman, who won the inaugural Montevideo title in 2021, fired a number of winners from her forehand wing to reel off five straight games and snatch the second set.

Parry eased to a 3-1 lead in the third set but a forehand miscue into the net allowed Zarazua to level terms at 3-3. From there, Zarazua moved ahead 5-4, where a rally backhand winner gave the Mexican her first championship point. There, a Parry backhand found the net, giving Zarazua the highest-level title of her career.

In Saturday's Montevideo Open doubles final, the unseeded all-Argentine pairing of Maria Lourdes Carle and Julia Riera defeated No.4 seeds Freya Christie and Yuliana Lizarazo 7-6(5), 7-5 to claim the title.

Carle and Riera beat three seeded teams on their way to the title, and they did not drop a set in all four of their wins this week. They took 1 hour and 44 minutes to topple Christie of Great Britain and Colombia's Lizarazo in the final.

Carle is on an eight-match winning streak in doubles, having won two WTA 125 doubles titles in a two-week span. Carle won her first career WTA 125 doubles title alongside Despina Papamichail in Buenos Aires last week. As for Riera, this is her first career WTA 125 title.