Alycia Parks and Maja Chwalinska are this week’s singles champions at WTA 125 events.
At the Open In Arte Angers Loire in Angers, France, No.3 seed Parks of the United States defeated wild card Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-0 in Sunday’s singles final. Parks is now a two-time champion in Angers, having already won this title in 2022.
Parks took 2 hours and 22 minutes to overcome former Top 5 player Bencic, who has recently returned to tour following maternity leave. Parks fired 14 aces in the final, and she won 100 percent of her first-service points (7-for-7) in the decisive third set.
The 23-year-old Parks continues to excel on indoor hardcourts. This is her fifth WTA 125 singles title, and three of those have come on indoor hard. The American’s WTA 250 title at 2023 Lyon was also on an indoor hardcourt.
Currently ranked World No.103, Parks is projected to rise back inside the Top 100 of the PIF Rankings following this week’s results. She hit a career-high of No.40 last summer.
It was also a big week for 2021 Olympic gold medalist Bencic, whose return to tour has started well. Bencic has played four events in the last five weeks (including Billie Jean King Cup) and has posted an 8-2 singles record in that time. Bencic gave birth to her first child in April.
Bencic also featured in Sunday’s doubles final, and she finished runner-up there as well. No.1-seeded Romanians Monica Niculescu and Elena-Gabriela Ruse beat the all-Swiss pairing of Bencic and Celine Naef 6-3, 6-4 for the doubles title.
Niculescu won her second straight Angers title (she took the title here last year with Cristina Bucsa) and her third WTA 125 doubles title overall. This is Ruse’s first WTA 125 doubles title of her career.
Meanwhile, Chwalinska of Poland swept through two matches on Sunday to claim her first career WTA 125 singles title at the MundoTenis Open on the red clay of Florianopolis, Brazil.
No.7 seed Chwalinska won a rain-delayed semifinal to open the day, breezing past No.8 seed Leolia Jeanjean of France 6-0, 6-3 in 79 minutes. Hours later, Chwalinska powered to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Swiss qualifier Ylena In-Albon in a 71-minute final.
Chwalinska lost only one set in five matches this week, collecting her biggest career title in the process. The 23-year-old started the season outside the Top 300, but she is currently ranked a career-high No.145 and is projected to go even higher in Monday’s updated PIF Rankings.
Caio Graça – Green Fotografias / MundoTenis Open
In-Albon, who nearly cracked the Top 100 in 2022, contested her biggest career final this week. The Swiss got there by upsetting No.1 seed Maria Lourdes Carle 3-6, 7-6(9), 6-2 in Sunday’s other rain-delayed semifinal, saving two match points in a three-hour tussle.
Chwalinska also won this week’s Florianopolis doubles title, as she and Brazil’s Laura Pigossi beat Nicole Fossa Huergo of Italy and Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine 7-6(3), 6-3 in the final. The doubles final was played indoors on Saturday due to the weather delays.
This is Chwalinska’s second career WTA 125 doubles title, having just won last week’s WTA 125 Buenos Aires doubles title with Katarzyna Kawa. This is the first WTA 125 doubles title for Pigossi, who won a bronze medal in doubles at the 2021 Olympics.