Margarita Gasparyan cruised past 17-year-old rising star Anastasia Potapova 6-1 6-2 in an all-Russian final of the Tashkent Open to win her first tournament since 2015 when she won her maiden title in Baku. The current world number 299 underwent surgery three times in the past two years after suffering a career-threatening knee injury in 2016. She will make her return to the top 200 next week after dropping outside the top 1000 last May.
The Russian player has become the lowest WTA champion since 2001, when Angelique Widlaja won in Bali.
Gasparyan, whose first idols were Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova at the start of her career, won the Junior Fed Cup in 2010 alongside Daria Gavrilova. She finished the 2016 season ranked 115 after a difficult season, in which she was hampered by the knee injury in the second half of the season. Before the injury she reached a career-high of world number 41 and scored her second top-20 win against Karolina Pliskova in Doha 2016. Before winning in Tashkent she reached the Round of 16 in Guangzhou in her first main draw appearance since 2016.
Potapova was bidding to win her first title after finishing runner-up to another 17-year-old Olga Danilovic from Serbia in Moscow last July.
Gasparyan broke twice in the first and third games o race out to a 4-0 lead. Potapova got her first game on the scoreboard for 1-4 but Gasparyan held her next service games to win the first set 6-1. Gasparyan went up another double break to open up a 4-0 lead and sealed the win with her third break in the final game, when Potapova made a double fault on her third match point
“When I entered this event, I wanted to just play a tournament. I did not think I would win the title. My goal was to play a lot of matches. I did not expect I would go far here. For me this is a special win for me, because I will have more chances to play in bigger tournaments. I feel like I am stronger now than before. I have worked very hard on my fitness. I did not expect to win easily. It’s easy to play against a friend but I was preparted. It’s been an amazing week for me. I got to play many matches and I feel more confident. I have had a busy week playing singles and doubles and I feel really tired ”, said Gasparyan.
