TENNIS: Martina Trevisan dropped just three games against Claire Liu in the Grand Prix Sar La Princesse Lalla Meryem final in Morocco to capture her first Hologic WTA Tour title.
Martina Trevisan was in her first WTA Tour final at the Grand Prix Sar La Princesse Lalla Meryem tournament in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old Italian won her first title with a runaway win, dropping only 3 games to American Claire Liu.
First-time finalists clash
In a clash of first-time Hologic WTA Tour finalists, it was Martina Trevisan who came away with her maiden title. She defeated Claire Liu 6-2, 6-1 in 1 hour and 32 minutes.
Trevisan is the second first-time champion in 2022, following Anastasia Potapova in Istanbul. She is also the fourth Italian winner in Morocco. Previous Italian winners were Rita Grande at Casablanca 2003, Alberta Brianti at Fes 2011 and Francesca Schiavone at Marrakech 2013.
Ranked no. 85 in the world, Trevisan ended an eight-match winning streak for Liu, who was the Paris 125 champion the week prior to Rabat. The 2020 Roland Garros quarterfinalist extended her 2022 record to 15-10 (7-4 in WTA main draws).
Trevisan’s tournament
For such a convincing scoreline, the match lasted longer than would be expected. The first set was considerably closer than the scoreline suggests. All but two of the games went to deuce. Trevisan faced nine break points, managing to save eight of them. Crucially, Trevisan began to nail her passing shots, undermining Liu’s early success with chip-and-charge tactics.
The second set was all Trevisan as Liu fell away. The No.92-ranked American saved break point to hold in the first game, but then lost six games on the trot.
Trevisan’s unforced error count was half that of the American’s, with 22 unforced errors compared to Liu’s 44. Liu, however, had a better winners count 17 to Trevisan’s 15; but with so many errors coming from her racquet, the result was going the way of the Italian.
Trevisan won 10 out of 11 points en route to a 3-1 lead, and also reeled off 15 of the last 18 points.
On her way to the final, Trevisan defeated the number 1 and 7 seeds, Garbine Muguruza of Spain and Arantxa Rus of The Netherlands.
Late bloomer
Trevisan’s late-blooming success comes after she spent much of her early career sidelined by anorexia and injury. Afterwards, she dedicated the win to her father Claudio, saying:
“I would like to dedicate this trophy to my dad. He can’t see me in this moment but I know he would be very proud of me. He is a fighter like me during this week, but during his whole life – so this is for you, dad.”
Both players are off to Paris for the Roland Garros tournament. In the first round, Trevisan faces Harriet Dart and Liu takes on No.24 seed Tamara Zidansek.
