Gavrilova fights back to claim maiden WTA title
Daria Gavrilova won her first WTA Tour title on Saturday as she came from a set down to defeat Dominika Cibulkova in the Connecticut Open final.
The unseeded Australian shrugged off the disappointment of dropping the opening set and going a break down in the decider to prevail 4-6 6-3 6-4.
Cibulkova, seeded second, had broken to lead 4-3 in the final set, but proceeded to lose three games in a row in what was her first final since October, when she beat Angelique Kerber to win the WTA Finals in Singapore.
The whole match proved a back-and-forth encounter, with the tone set from the start when Cibulkova dropped serve and swiftly broke back to love.
.@Daria_Gav is @ConnecticutOpen champion!
— WTA (@WTA) August 26, 2017
Sees off Cibulkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-4! pic.twitter.com/P7PdIhm5uk
Gavrilova, 23, then faltered at the vital moment when serving to stay in the set, again failing to register a point.
But she stepped it up a gear from there, breaking twice to level the match and then digging deep when the odds were stacked against her in the third, finally converting her third match point.