Margarita Gasparyan wins Baku Cup

BAKU — Margarita Gasparyan of Russia won her first WTA title Sunday by beating Patricia Maria Tig of Romania 6-3, 5-7, 6-0 in the Baku Cup final.

Gasparyan came out stronger, breaking twice en route to taking the first set then getting another crucial break to serve for the match in the second set at 6-3, 5-4. Tig stormed back – she broke back at love and ended up stealing the set a few games later – but Gasparyan bounced right back, storming through the third set 6-0 to seal the two-hour-and-29-minute encounter.

Before this week, Gasparyan had never even won a match at the WTA main draw level – she was 0-5 in five WTA main draws. She drew high praise from Serena Williams at Wimbledon, though.

“It’s been an amazing tournament for me,” Gasparyan said.

“It was an amazing atmosphere in the final today. I want to thank all the people who’ve supported me, like my hitting partner Misha, my doubles partner Alexandra and all of the organization here.

“It’s a very good tournament and I will always remember my week here.”

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has issued the new singles leaderboard of the WTA tour. Accordingly, Russian-Armenian Gasparyan moved up 41 places to 71st in the WTA world ranking.