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Alycia Parks denied Caroline Garcia a title at home as she defeated the French top-seed at the Lyon Open finale on Sunday. The American won 7-6(7), 7-5 in two hours and seven minutes. This was the 22-year-old’s first WTA title coming in what was the first WTA final of her career.
Both players did well behind their first serves, with Garcia winning 79% and Parks winning 84% of their first-serve points. The only break of the match came in the second set on Garcia’s serve while she faced match point.
Parks went on to save all four break points she faced in the match. Parks wrapped up the match with 28 winners of which 15 were aces. Garcia had 13 winners for the match. For the match, Parks finished with 83 points, five more than Garcia’s.
Lyon Open: Alycia Parks marks her moment
Talking about her strategy for the match, Parks said, “I made sure I focused on my service games today to get through the match, because I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy match.
So just staying within myself, and fighting for every point, and that got me through the match”. Then, speaking about winning the title, she said, “It feels amazing to hold my first WTA tour-level championship trophy.
Words can’t explain. Just last year, I was in an (ITF Challenger) $60,000 final, and now I have won a WTA 250”. Following her Lyon Open success, Alycia Parks rose to a new career-high of no. 51 in the WTA singles rankings on Monday, 6th February.
In December 2022, Parks broke into the top-100 of the WTA singles rankings for the first time and a couple of weeks later, she made her debut in the top-75 of the rankings. Likewise, this win over Caroline Garcia’s the first that Parks’ defeated a top-5 player of the WTA rankings.