Sara Errani of Italy won a nail-biting final at the Grand Est Open 88 in Contrexeville, France on Sunday, saving three championship points before edging No.6 seed Dalma Galfi of Hungary 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4) to win the WTA 125 tournament.
Former World No.5 Errani needed 2 hours and 40 minutes to hold off Galfi and win her second career WTA 125 title. Errani previously took the trophy at WTA 125 Indian Wells in 2018. Errani has also won nine career singles titles at Hologic WTA Tour-level.
Errani, the 2012 Roland Garros singles finalist and a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, has been in superb form at WTA 125 events of late, reaching her second straight final at this level. She finished runner-up to Alison van Uytvanck on the grass at WTA 125 Gaiba, Italy last month.
Back on clay, Errani used her top-level experience on the surface to grind out a victory, despite firing 11 double faults. Errani won 66 percent of her first-service points in the two sets she won, a hair better than Galfi's 64 percent success rate during that pair of crucial sets.
After splitting the first two sets, Galfi came back from an early break down in the topsy-turvy third set, breaking for a 4-2 lead with a rally dropshot winner. However, Errani struck back on her fifth break point of the following game to put the match back on serve.
At 5-4, an overhead winner gave Galfi championship point, but Errani erased that chance by returning a dropshot with a forehand winner. Galfi held two more championship points at 6-5, but Errani, who started routinely mixing in underarm serves at this juncture, fended those off as well.
In the decisive tiebreak, Errani returned a dropshot with a dropshot winner of her own to garner her first championship point at 6-4. There, a backhand winner sealed victory for Errani, who collapsed to the ground in joy after the grueling battle.
Galfi hit nine aces in the match but was unable to close out the victory. However, this marks the Hungarian's first WTA 125 final of her career, as she continues to rise up the rankings. Galfi started the year ranked No.124 but hit a career-high of No.81 last month.
The Contrexeville doubles title went to No.1 seeds Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia, who defeated No.2 seeds Han Xinyun and Alexandra Panova 7-6(8), 6-2.
Top seeds Eikeri and Mihalikova converted four of their six break points en route to their 1-hour and 40-minute win in Sunday's championship match.
It is the first WTA 125 title for Eikeri, and the second for Mihalikova, who partnered Greet Minnen to the title at WTA 125 Angers last year.
More to come...
