Southern California native Claire Liu won her first WTA Tour event on Sunday, stunning No. 2 seed Alexandria Eala 6-3, 6-0 at the Hong Kong Open.
Liu, 26, needed just 93 minutes to win the match. Entering the week, she was ranked No. 102 in the standings.
The two exchanged service breaks early in the first set. Serving at 4-3, Eala was broken again, giving Liu a chance to close the opener with three consecutive game wins.
The second set opened with a marathon first game that went to deuce 11 times. Liu took the game — one of five service breaks on the day — and Eala couldn’t respond. Liu closed out the match by winning nine consecutive games.
Still, Eala, a 21-year-old from the Philippines, will rise to No. 15 when the new rankings come out. She has one career win, victorious in Washington D.C, in August. Eala fell to 1-2 in WTA Tour finals.
–Field Level Media
