TENNIS WTA TOUR – It took Monica Puig just 1h 11m to defeat Silvia Soler-Espinoza 6-4 6-3 and win the Internationaux de Strasbourg, her maiden career title. Canadian Eugenie Bouchard finally won her first WTA Tour title defeating Karolina Pliskova 6-2 4-6 6-3 in just over 2 hours in Nuremberg. Joshua Bosco
WTA Strasbourg
It took World No.56 Monica Puig just 1h 11m to defeat Silvia Soler-Espinoza 6-4 6-3 and win the Internationaux de Strasbourg, her maiden career title on the WTA Tour.
After breaking Soler-Espinosa in the first game of the match, Puig went on to win the first set in 36 minutes losing only 3 points on serve along the way. In the second set the Spaniard managed to stay afloat at the beginning, saving break points on her first two service games, but then got broken in the fifth game to give Puig a 3-2 lead. The Puerto Rican player never looked back and closed the set with another break to take the match 6-4 6-3.
Monica Puig will now face No.19 seed Sam Stosur in the first round of Roland Garros while Soler-Espinosa will play South African Chanelle Scheepers for a place in the second round against, probably, former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki.
WTA Nuremberg
In what proved to be the most interesting match of the day, young Canadian Eugenie Bouchard finally won her first WTA Tour title defeating Karolina Pliskova 6-2 4-6 6-3 in just over 2 hours.
The Canadian stormed to a great start, breaking Pliskova in her first and last service games of the set to take it 6-2 in 27 minutes. In the second set Bouchard broke the Czech to take a 4-2 lead and looked poised to close the match in straight sets. Pliskova, though, had other plans and went on to win four consecutive games, breaking Bouchard twice, to win the second set 6-4 and force a decider.
The third set was a messy affair. The first three games went with serve and then the two players exchanged five consecutive breaks until Bouchard found herself serving on 5-3; this time the Canadian kept her focus and managed to hold, taking the set and winning the match.
Eugenie Bouchard’s first match at the French Open will be against Shahar Peer while Karolina Pliskova is up against French wildcard Mathilde Johansson.
