Bucsa secures 1st WTA title

MERIDA, Mexico (AFP) — Spain's Cristina Bucsa captured her first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) title on Sunday, beating Poland's Magdalena Frech 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the final of the hardcourt tournament in Merida, Mexico.

The 63rd-ranked Bucsa was coming off her first career win over a top-10 player with her semi-final triumph over seventh-ranked Jasmine Paolini. She had reached the second final of her career without dropping a set.

She was on fire to start, winning the first three games and bouncing back from a break in the fourth game to win the next three as Frech struggled for consistency.

As Frech stepped things up in the second set Bucsa's errors multiplied and she quickly found herself down two breaks at 0-3 to the 57th-ranked Pole, who leveled the match with authority but was broken in the fourth game of the third.

Bucsa was broken as she served for the match in the ninth game, but she put it away in the next with the aid of two gutsy volley winners and two double faults from Frech.

Meanwhile in Texas, hometown favorite Peyton Stearns battled past Taylor Townsend 7-6 (10/8), 7-5 on Sunday to capture her second WTA title in the Austin Open.

Fourth-seeded Stearns, who played two years of collegiate tennis for the University of Texas at Austin, needed two hours and 22 minutes to get past Townsend, a former doubles world number one who was playing in her first WTA singles final.

Townsend broke Stearns to open the match, but she was unable to convert a pair of set points in the ninth game and was broken in the 10th as they went to the tiebreaker.

Townsend fended off four set points and had one more of her own before Stearns pocketed the first set.

They were all-square at 4-4 in the second after an exchange of four breaks, but Stearns gained a decisive break for a 6-5 lead and calmly served it out.

The American, ranked 62nd in the world, added the hardcourt Austin title to the claycourt trophy she lifted in Rabat in 2024.