While U.S. fans have been sleeping, their tennis players have come out of the gates fast in Australia

HUA HIN, Thailand (AP) — Zhu Lin of China won her maiden career title after beating Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Thailand Open on Sunday.

In a match lasting one hour and 45 minutes, both players exchanged nail-biting baseline rallies before Zhu finally found a way past her determined opponent.

The 29-year-old Chinese player managed a break to go up 5-3 in the first set. Although she was broken to love in the following game, Zhu returned the favour straight back, also to love, to take the opening set in 46 minutes.

The second saw players trade breaks with Zhu eventually securing her first match point at 5-3. She sprayed a shot wide to miss the chance but capitalized on her third in the 10th game with a backhand winner.

"I'm so happy to finally win my first tour title. All the hard work finally paid off," said the No. 54-ranked Zhu, who will crack the top 50 when the new WTA rankings are updated on Monday.

Advertising

Zhu has started the season strongly, reaching the quarter-finals in Auckland and the last 16 at the Australian Open.

The victory also allowed Zhu to avenge her loss to the Ukrainian at the WTA Dubai Championships back in 2019.

Despite the loss, the No. 136-ranked Tsurenko, 33, will return to the top 100.

___

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Advertising