Armenian-born tennis player wins WTA tournament in Baku

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian tennis player of Armenian descent, Margarita Gasparyan and her one-handed backhand won an all-WTA Rising Star final against Patricia Maria Tig, making this her first WTA title of her career at the Baku Cup, WTA website reports.

A day earlier, the two upstarts - Gasparyan unseeded, Tig a qualifier - took out the Top 2 seeds in the semifinals of the International event, Tig beating No.1 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Gasparyan No.2 seed Karin Knapp - and both of them brought their very best with the title on the line, too.

She drew high praise from Serena Williams at Wimbledon.

Gasparyan is the first player with a one-handed backhand to win a WTA title this year. It's actually been over a year since the last time it happened: Carla Suárez Navarro with a one-handed backhand was the last to win a WTA title at Oeiras in April 2014.

Gasparyan came on court a little bit later and won the doubles title. Seeded No.1 alongside Alexandra Panova, she beat No.2 seeds Vitalia Diatchenko and Olga Savchuk in the final, 6-3, 7-5, the website reports.

"It's been an amazing tournament for me," Gasparyan said. "It was an amazing atmosphere in the final today. I want to thank all the people who've supported me, like my hitting partner Misha, my doubles partner Alexandra and all of the organization here.”