DANISH teenager Clara Tauson has won her maiden WTA Tour with a straight sets victory over fellow qualifier, Viktorjia Golubic in the Lyon Open final. Tauson produced a stunning week to not drop a set and extend her 2021 record – over WTA and ITF Tours – to 19-3, whilst handing Golubic her fourth loss for a 19-4 record. The 6-4 6-1 victory backed up her ITF tournament victory over Golubic a few weeks back, allowing her to add a WTA 250 event to her trophy cabinet.

It was the first final between two qualifiers in four years, in a match that last 89 minutes. Tauson served seven aces, but at a poor 48.2 per cent efficiency. That mattered little however, as she capitalised with 66.7 and 55.2 per cent success off her first and second serves, the counter contrast to a steady Golubic who served at 74.6 per cent efficiency, but could only muster 49.1 and 27.8 per cent off her service games.

“I think I played aggressive, I think I played my game, even though I missed a few balls,” Tauson said post-match. “I didn’t really think too much about winning or losing, I thought about playing my game and just playing one point at a time, and that helped a lot.”

A former junior world number one, Tauson raced through the draw from qualifying, which started with a stunning 6-3 6-4 victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova in the opening round. She has booked her place inside the Top 100 on Tour following her final victory.

“I think I’ve been really solid; especially after the first set, I’ve come out good in every single match,” Tauson said. “I just kept my game going. It’s been a weird week like that, normally I have some fall-outs, but I haven’t had any of those this week, so I’m very happy with that.”

LYON OPEN FINAL RESULT:

[Q] Clara Tauson (DEN) defeated [Q] Viktorija Golubic (SUI) 6-4 6-1

Meanwhile day one of the Dubai WTA Tour 1000 event kicked off with seven first round matches completed. Alexandrova was the talking point of another loss at this tournament, going down to American young gun Coco Gauff in three sets. Gauff needed to win two tiebreakers, including an epic third set tiebreaker 10-8 to get up in the two-hour and 41-minute match, but eventually saluted to advance through to the second round.

Gauff saved two match points in the deciding set tiebreaker after leading by as much as 5-1 in the third. She served for the match three times at 5-2, 5-4 and 6-5, and missed opportunities on closing it out sooner with four match points in the tenth game of the set. The American got on the back foot in the tiebreaker, having to save two match points herself, before coming from 8-7 down to win 10-8 and book her place in the Round of 32.

“There were times when we both could have thrown in the towel and gave up, but we both were mentally fighting,” Gauff said post-match. “I think it’s just one of those that you’re happy that it’s over, and happy that you fought through it.”

The only seed in action on day one was Greek 16th seed Maria Sakkari, but she fell to Czech, Barbora Krejikova in straight sets, 6-2 7-6 in an hour and 48 minutes on court. Krejikova’s doubles partner, Katerina Siniakova was not as fortunate, suffering defeat at the hands of Tunisian Ons Jabeur in just 65 minutes, 6-2 6-3. Meanwhile veteran Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, and compatriot Veronika Kudermetova both advanced to the Round of 32 with first round victories, as did Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, and Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.

DUBAI ROUND OF 64 RESULTS:

Barbora Krejicova (CZE) defeated [16] Maria Sakkari (GRE) 6-2 7-6
Ons Jabeur (TUN) defeated Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 6-2 6-3
Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) defeated Wang Qiang (CHN) 6-4 1-6 7-5
Coco Gauff (USA) defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) 7-6 2-6 7-6
Alize Cornet (FRA) defeated Daria Kasatkina (RUS) 6-4 3-6 6-1
Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) defeated Bernarda Pera (USA) 6-0 5-3 RET
Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 7-6 6-2

Picture credit: Alexandre Hergott – Lyon Open