The talented Alycia Parks takes on world No. 88 Rebecca Peterson in what promises to be an exciting finale in the WTA Andorra Open 2022 on Sunday.
The American youngster has breathed fire and shown plenty of promise throughout the tournament. She has all the tools required to be a successful player. The best thing about her has been her fearless attitude and aggressiveness in the face of adversity. Parks came into the tournament on the back of a fine campaign in the ITF event in Valencia, where she made it to the semifinals. In Andorra, Parks has been playing her trade in both the singles and doubles events. She has balanced both events well. She has already made it to the semis of the doubles event, partnering with Russia’s Alexandra Panova.
Coming to the singles competition, Parks, who turns 22 on New Year’s Eve, began her rampaging journey with a closely contested three-set affair against fourth seed Linda Noskova. After winning a hard-fought first set, Parks was outplayed in the second set. However, she showed her prowess to win the third set convincingly and sealed the match 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-2.
Parks followed it up with a dominating performance against France’s Oceane Dodin. The former defeated her 26-year-old opponent in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (8-6). The quarterfinals saw Parks taking on Sabine Lisicki.
The hard-hitting American had to dig deep to pick up a 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3 win to reach her second consecutive semifinal. Parks was expected to have a tough time dealing with an in-form Cristina Bucsa in the semis. However, she played her best match to pick up a thumping 6-3, 6-3 win. Parks has served a whopping 51 aces in the four matches she has played so far in the tournament. The serve has worked wonders for the talented player in Andorra. If she defeated Peterson, she will make it to No. 100 in the WTA rankings.
The Swedish veteran has reached her second consecutive final. After losing to Mirra Andreeva in the finals of the ITF event in Meitar, Peterson would eye her first title of the season. She has played some scintillating tennis in Andorra and defeated a couple of seeded players en route to the final.
The 27-year-old began her campaign with a confident 6-4, 7-5 win against Arantxa Rus in the round of 32. She moved on and defeated the talented Ukrainian youngster, Daria Snigur in the round of 16. Snigur, seeded seventh in the tournament, had no answers to the technical and tactical supremacy shown by her opponent throughout the encounter. Peterson had a win percentage of 77 on the first serve compared to just 50 for Snigur.
Peterson faced her toughest challenge in the quarterfinals as she squared off against the Chinese veteran, Zhang Shuai. The 33-year-old won the first set but Peterson didn’t let her have it easy. In the second and third sets, Peterson completely outplayed her opponent and won the match 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-1 to reach her third straight semifinal. However, she was in no mood to stop. In the semis, Peterson faced an in-form Ana Konjuh. The Croatian had won two consecutive events before coming to Andorra. However, she also became a victim of Peterson’s tactical brilliance and lost the match 3-6, 1-6 without putting up much of a fight.
Alycia Parks and Rebecca Peterson have not faced each other as yet. This will be their first meeting and it comes in a big final. The head-to-head scoreline, therefore, sits at 0-0 as we wait to see who blinks first.
Prediction: Rebecca Peterson to win in three sets.
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