In the women’s singles final at the National Bank Challenger, Francesca Di Lorenzo of New Albany, Ohio beat Erin Routliffe of Caldeon, Ontario 6-4, 6-1.
“It feels great,” said Di Lorenzo, a semifinalist in junior girls’ singles and junior girls’ doubles at the 2015 US Open. “It’s been a long week and I’ve been pretty focussed the whole week in trying to achieve the goal of winning the tournament – one step at a time, one match at a time.”
Sunday’s victory marked Di Lorenzo’s first Challenger circuit singles title. The 18-year-old won her first professional singles title last summer at a Futures event in Austin, Texas.
Against Routliffe, Di Lorenzo trailed 3-1 in the first set before winning 11 of the last 13 games of the match.
“I started making more first serves and I started getting the ball a little bit deeper,” Di Lorenzo said on how she turned the first set around in her favour. “I was hitting short (early in the match) and she was attacking and she was putting balls away. I started getting it higher, deeper – not giving her the opportunity to attack and then taking my opportunities when she hit it short.”
