Haddad Maia overcomes Riske in Nottingham to claim first WTA title

Beatriz Haddad Maia achieved another milestone this season. The No.7 seed from Brazil defeated No.6 seed Alison Riske of the United States 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the Rothesay Open final to capture her first Hologic WTA Tour singles title.

Haddad Maia, currently ranked at a career-high World No.48, fought back from an early break down in the third set before prevailing after 2 hours and 18 minutes in her first meeting with Riske.

The Brazilian improves to 1-1 in WTA singles finals. She previously finished as runner-up to Jelena Ostapenko at 2017 Seoul. Riske is now 3-10 in WTA singles finals.

Words from the winner: "It’s an amazing week, I couldn’t expect a better start on grass," Haddad Maia said afterward. "I was just fighting, I was just pushing myself every single point, every single match.

"Grass is a special moment, we don’t have a lot of tournaments on grass, so it’s time to improve and be aggressive. On grass courts, it’s better to do that, so I will just keep doing that for my [doubles final], and after the doubles, next week in Birmingham, Eastbourne, and Wimbledon."

Haddad Maia went on to win the doubles title later on Sunday as well. She and Zhang Shuai, the No.1 seeds, defeated No.4 seeds Caroline Dolehide and Monica Niculescu 7-6(2), 6-3 in the final.

Brazilian breakthrough: In her Nottingham tournament debut, Haddad Maia battled through the field to collect the first WTA singles title by a Brazilian since Teliana Pereira triumphed at Florianopolis 2015.

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Haddad Maia had already been posting strong results in recent weeks. The 26-year-old won her first WTA 125 title in Saint-Malo in May, then followed that up with a run to the WTA 125 Paris final the following week, helping her hit a new peak in the rankings.

Simply by making the Nottingham final, Haddad Maia became the first Brazilian woman to reach a grass-court singles final since Maria Bueno finished runner-up to Margaret Court at Chestnut Hill in 1968.

Earlier in the week, Haddad Maia had knocked top seed Maria Sakkari out in the quarterfinals, which was the left-hander's fifth consecutive win in her past five meetings against Top 5 players.

Tale of the match: Haddad Maia had the only break of the first set to lead 2-1, and she took the one-set lead with her second ace of the day. But the second set was all Riske, as the American charged to a 5-0 lead, then came back from 0-40 down to tie up the final.

In the third set, errors by Haddad Maia gave Riske an early break at 2-1, but heavy hitting by the Brazilian allowed her to immediately get back on serve. At 4-3, a terrific passing winner on the sideline gave Haddad Maia double break point, and she took that game after a double fault by Riske.

Serving for the championship at 5-3, Haddad Maia coolly wrapped up the match, drawing two return miscues in a row from Riske to complete the last game and grab the crown.

Doubling up: Haddad Maia went 2-for-2 on Sunday as she and Zhang triumphed over Dolehide and Niculescu in a 1-hour and 27-minute doubles final.

Haddad Maia and Zhang teamed up for the first time this week. Haddad Maia has now won four career doubles titles, and this is her second of the year. Zhang is up to 12 career doubles titles, and this is her first of the season.

Haddad Maia is just the second player to sweep the singles and doubles titles at an event this year, following Ashleigh Barty at Adelaide 500.