Yue Yuan beats Xiyu Wang in straight sets to win ATX title

2024-03-05 - Jay Plotkin

History proved worth a nerve-racking wait for Yue Yuan in Sunday afternoon’s ATX Open singles championship.

Playing against longtime friend Xiyu Wang in the first WTA final held in the United States to match two players from China, Yuan needed seven chances to lock up her first tournament title. Wang saved six match points before Yuan finally converted to win 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in a match that lasted 2 hours, 13 minutes.

“I am very happy,” Yuan said. “I think we both played amazing today. We both did really well.”

Yuan used her punishing forehand and backhand to keep Wang on the move. Yuan won the first set after a slow start and built a 5-2 lead in the second set as Wang struggled with the serve that had been a key for her throughout the week. She suffered eight double faults, including two that cost her games.

A second set rally for Wang

With her back against the wall, Wang raised her game. She broke Yuan to close within 5-3 in the second set, but she promptly fell into a 0-40 hole in the next game to give Yuan her first three match points.

“First of all, I’m not sure that’s a good thing … getting to that moment,” Wang said about her approach when facing match point. “It’s a difficult moment, but you need to be simple. You just try to fight and save all the shots you can run for, because if you don’t, you are lost.”

Calmly, Wang saved all of them, eventually winning the game with two unreturnable serves to close within 5-4. Yuan found herself in a similar circumstance in Saturday’s semifinals, when she said she lost focus a bit while closing out Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

“I think today was better than yesterday,” she said. “I think that (Wang) is more aggressive, and sometimes I just played like normal tennis, and she has a big serve, big forehand and big backhand and they are very tough. When she played well, I could not do anything (with those shots).”

A personal pep talk turns the match

Wang eventually took a 6-5 lead in the set before Yuan regrouped at the final changeover.

“I wanted to forget that I had just missed some match points,” Yuan said. “I had to think about that she had just saved her serve game and now I had to save my serve game. I needed to do well on my serve game. That was all I was thinking.”

Yuan won the first three points of the game with outright winners to hold serve easily to force a tiebreaker. She continued her run in the tiebreaker, opening up a 6-1 lead. Finishing the match still proved challenging. Wang dug her heels in and saved three more match points before Yuan clinched the title.

“In that moment it is tough,” Wang said. “All I can do is try my best and stay focused on the next point. I’m happy that I could fight until the very end.”

A friendly foe makes for an awkward final

Sunday’s match marked the first time that Yuan and Wang had met as professionals. Wang said during their days as junior players that they often teamed up to play doubles, so while she was a little disappointed not to win the match, she was happy for her friend.

“We are friends, so I am so happy for her,” Wang said. “She played amazing today and she did so well this week. While I need to work on a lot of details, I also need to work on keeping my intensity up. She did a really good job with that.”