WTA Hua Hin: Dayana Yastremska performs miracle escape to win the title

An 18-year-old Dayana Yastremska has won the second WTA title in Hua Hin, overcoming a stern test from Ajla Tomljanovic to prevail 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 in two hours and 22 minutes. This is the second title in the last five WTA tournaments for the super talented teenager and she had to work really hard to earn it, trailing 5-2 in the deciding set and struggling with a knee injury before she overpowered all the obstacles to cross the finish line first and come closer to the place in the top-30.

Dayana won their previous match in Beijing last fall and Ajla fought even stronger in this one, seeking the first WTA title after losing the first four finals but finishing runner-up once again after wasting her chances. As usual, Yastremska had much more winners than her rival, keeping the points on her racquet in the opening set before losing the edge in the second, starting to make too many mistakes and drifting further and further from the positive result in the decider.

At 2-5, she began to come back and managed to go all the way with a few treatments on her left knee, battling for every point and lifting the second trophy at such a young age. Dayana had four aces but also 13 double faults, six in the opener when she had the scoreboard on her side anyway.

They finished the match with 97 points for each and with seven breaks on the tally, playing one of the most interesting WTA finals of the season. Yastremska raced into a 5-0 lead in the opener with some magnificent hitting, suffering a break in game seven but closing it with another break at 5-2.

Ajla had the upper hand in set number two, winning 65% of the return points to score three breaks of serve and clinch the set with a hold at 15 in game eight, building the momentum before the decider where she had the advantage now.

Ajla broke Dayana three times in a row to forge a huge 5-2 lead but instead of making that one last push towards the title she started to lose the critical points, disturbed a little bit buy those medical timeouts Yastremska was receiving.

The youngster never gave up, fighting for every point and pulling two breaks back to level the score at 5-5 before winning the tie break 7-3 to seal the deal and celebrate the title. <table