Double Delight For Maia
Brazilian tennis star Beatriz Haddad Maia is the Rothesay Nottingham Open ladies singles champion for 2022 after beating American Alison Riske in a tense final and in a superb Sunday for her on a personal level, she also teamed up with China’s Zhang Shuai to take home the women’s doubles title.
The seventh seed world number 48 beat her singles opponent Riske, seeded a place above and five ranking positions ahead of Maia, over three well contested sets at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
Maia took a close first set by six games to four but was comprehensively out played in the second losing 1-6 to the Pittsburgh born 31-year-old.
The Brazilian however got herself back on track to win 6-3 in the third and take home the prize, a first WTA 250 tour win for the 26-year-old left hander from Sao Paulo who said after her victory “Nottingham for sure will always be in my heart”.
Maia went through to Sundays singles final match, her second ever in a WTA250 showpiece, after beating Tereza Martincova in the semi-final on Saturday. Having won the first set, she was 4-1 up in the second when the Czech star was forced to withdraw the game with injury and concede. Riske herself, beating Victorija Golubic in three sets.
In the women’s doubles final Maia then teamed up with Zhang to beat Caroline Dolehide and Monica Niculescu 7-6, 6-3. It was Maia’s fourth career doubles title as Zhang collected her twelfth.
The men’s final which is an ATP challenger event, saw top seed British star Dan Evans beat Australian third seed Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-4. It was Evans second Nottingham tournament victory after winning the 2019 event, beating Russian Evgeny Donskoy, the Birmingham born star has now appeared in three Nottingham Open finals and is one of only two British winners, along with Greg Rusedski, both winning the competition twice.
In the semi-finals Evans beat American Jack Sock (7-5, 6-3) in two straight sets on Saturday as Thompson saw off Alexei Popyrin (6-4, 6-2) in a convincing win to reach the last two.
Finally in the men’s doubles final, Jonny O’Mara and Ken Skupski beat Julian Cash and Henry Patten 3-6, 6-2, 16-14, in a spectacular all British affair which went the distance.
*Main image @WTA Beatriz Haddad Maia wins her first WTA competition.
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