Yuan battles past Wang Xiyu in Austin to capture first career title

No.8 seed Yuan Yue won the first Hologic WTA Tour title of her career at the ATX Open on Sunday, battling past No.6 seed Wang Xiyu 6-4, 7-6(4) in an all-Chinese final.

"I feel very happy," Yuan said after her win. "We both played amazing today. I think we both did really well.”

The 25-year-old Yuan triumphed after 2 hours and 13 minutes, holding off a tremendous comeback by her 22-year-old countrywoman Wang, who trailed 5-2 in the second set.

Yuan finally prevailed on her seventh championship point, taking home the title in her second career WTA final. Yuan finished runner-up to Jessica Pegula at Seoul last October.

Sunday's matchup was the first all-Chinese final since Wang Qiang defeated Zheng Saisai for the 2018 Nanchang title. Moreover, it was the first all-Chinese final to take place outside of Asia since 2006, when Zheng Jie defeated Li Na to take the title in Estoril, Portugal.

Tale of the match: Yuan came back from 2-0 down to claim the first set, finishing it off with an unreturned forehand. Yuan erased five of the six break points she faced in the opener, while converting both of her own break points.

World No.68 Yuan kept the momentum in the early stages of the second set, sweeping to a 5-2 lead. Yuan could not serve out the match in that game, but she garnered three consecutive championship points on Wang’s serve at 5-3, 0-40.

However, clutch serving helped 64th-ranked Wang get out of that jam, and she made a stirring comeback from there. Wang reeled off four straight games to lead 6-5 in the set before Yuan righted her ship to line up a tiebreak.

"I just forgot I missed some match points, and just [thought] about how we both saved our serve games," Yuan said, when describing what was going through her head before her crucial hold for 6-6. "I have to do well on my serve game, that’s it.”

Yuan was the dominant force to start the tiebreak, jumping ahead 6-1 and grabbing five more championship points. Once again, Wang fought back, saving three more match points, but Yuan at last converted her seventh chance to polish off the victory.

Wang had more winners on the day, with 20 to Yuan's 14. However, Yuan had 12 fewer unforced errors than Wang in the final.

Gadecki, Nicholls claim doubles title: Olivia Gadecki of Australia and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain won the ATX Open doubles title later on Sunday. In the all-unseeded final, they defeated Katarzyna Kawa of Poland and Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-4 in 75 minutes.

This week marked the first time the pair of Olivias teamed up, and it went perfectly as they took the title without dropping a set. It is the first WTA doubles title for Gadecki and the second for Nicholls, who previously won 2022 Granby with Alicia Barnett.