Gisela Dulko beats Arantxa Parra Santonja to win Abierto Mexicano Telcel Tennis Championships
World number 73 Gisela Dulko defeated Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-3, 7-6 in the final of Abierto Mexicano Telcel Tennis Championships 2011 to win her fourth career title.
The fourth seeded Dulko cruised into the final quite comfortably, dropping only one set en route to the title battle. On the other hand, sixth seed Santonja also put up a brilliant show to set up a mouth-watering final.
The Argentinean Dulko dominated the match right from the outset. She broke Santonja twice with her powerful serves and precise forehands to win the first set 6-3.
Dulko looked firmly in control in the second set as well with the score line of 6-3, 5-1 in her favour before the 28-year-old Spaniard fought back to win five games in a row.
Santonja even had three set points to level the match when the score was 6-5. But the Australian Open 2011 Doubles Champion Dulko won eight straight points to take the set into a tie break and take a 3-0 lead before closing out the match. The win has given
Dulko her first career title in nearly three years.
Speaking to the reporters in a post match interview, the 26-year-old Argentinean said, “Finals are always special and we were both nervous in the first set. But after that I was playing much better.”
“All of a sudden I started to get a bit nervous again and Arantxa started playing so well. I was three set points down. At the end I ended up winning, so I'm really happy. I love this tournament but I was always struggling here. I felt great this week though,
on and off the court. I couldn't go to the beach too much though, so I'll try to do that tomorrow morning before I leave,” added Dulko.
Acapulco has remained a popular red clay surface stop on the Women Tennis Association calendar but no one from Argentina has ever claimed the crown. Paola Suarez and Mariana Diaz-Oliva both reached the finals, but finished runner-ups. With this win, Dulko
has become the first Argentinean to win the Mexican Open title.
Dulko, who is ranked as the number one doubles player of the world, was once ranked as high as 26th in the singles back in 2005. However, following her continuous failures in the singles arena, her ranking slipped out of the top 50. Winning a
500 series WTA tournament should give Dulko a decent boost when the new rankings are released on Monday.
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