A COUPLE of maiden WTA Tour winners entered the books on the weekend as the Palermo Ladies Open and Poland Open came to a close, with top seed American Danielle Collins claiming the Palermo trophy and Belgian world number 165 Maryna Zanevska taking out the Gdynia event in Poland.

In Italy, Collins ended Elena-Gabriela Ruse‘s 12-match winning streak with an impressive 6-4 6-2 victory over the Romanian. Collins was attending her first tournament with the top seeded position, and required one hour and 50 minutes to complete the sweep, winning 69.4 per cent of her first serve points throughout and saving five of seven break points.

“It’s given me so much self-confidence to finally win a tournament, because I’ve been on tour now for a couple of years, and that was one of my goals,” Collins said post-match.

“When I went on the court, I knew I was up against a tough opponent who’s been playing really well, who’s really been on a roll the last couple of weeks,” Collins said. “I knew what I needed to do, but at times there were some moments where she was playing some really great tennis and it gave me some challenges.

“I had to fight for every single point, and I had to be really mentally engaged the entire way through. I needed to be on top of my tactics, to make technical adjustments along the way, so I was having to work through a bunch of different things throughout the match, with the challenges she was throwing my way.”

In Poland, it was Belgian Zanevska who claimed her maiden title, outlasting Slovakian Kristina Kucova – also in her first tour-level final – in a tough 6-4 7-6(4) in one hour and 51 minutes. While Kucova was marginally more effective off her first serve, Zanevska made up for it winning 66.7 per cent of Kucova’s second serve points and saved eight of 13 break points throughout.

“Today, I was living my dream,” Zanevska said. “It’s such an amazing moment for me. There are so many things right now in my head, and it’s tough to actually put all the thoughts together.”

Despite trailing by a double break during both sets, Zanevska fought hard to clinch victory and built off the crowd to string a comeback win together.

“Today I started my match not the greatest, 0-3, didn’t feel amazing, quite stressful,” Zanevska said. “But then I heard sometimes [from the crowd], ‘Maryna, hey, let’s go!’ It gave me such an inspiration to actually give a boost and do it better.”

PALERMO LADIES OPEN FINAL RESULT:

[1] Danielle Collins (USA) defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse (ROU) 6-4 6-2

POLAND OPEN FINAL RESULT: 

Maryna Zanevksa (BEL) defeated Kristina Kucova (SVK) 6-4 7-6

Picture credit: Palermo Ladies Open