US teenager Ashlyn Krueger beat Zhu Lin 6-3 7-6 (8-6) at the Japan Open Tennis Championships to win her first WTA Tour title. Krueger achieved the second top 50 win of her career.
Krueger achieved her previous best result on the WTA Tour, when she reached the quarter final in s’Hertogenbosch last June.
Krueger did not drop a set this week winning her previous matches against Kateryna Baindl, Jessica Ponchet, Anna Kalinskaya and Mai Hontama.
Krueger broke Zhu in her first service game of the match. The Texan player consolidated the break with a hold of serve for 3-0 and cruised through her next service games to close out the first set 6-3.
Neither player earned a single break point in the second set. Zhu earned a set point at 6-5 in the tie-break, but he lost the baseline forehand exchange.
Krueger hit a return winner at 6-6 to earn her first match point and sealed the win after 96 minutes on Zhu’s 16th unforced error of the match.
