World No. 7 Zheng Qinwen has successfully defended her Palermo title after overcoming Karolina Muchova 6-4 4-6 6-2 in a final that lasted nearly three hours and featured many turnarounds. Zheng, who returned to a WTA 250 tournament in Palermo as the top seed, was twice down by a break in the first set.
But after going 4-3 up in the first set and putting herself two games away from winning the opener, No. 2 seed Muchova suffered a collapse as Zheng claimed back-to-back breaks in the eighth and 10th games to overturn the deficit and steal the first set from the top-seeded Chinese.
After losing the first set in a heartbreaking way, Muchova showed some great mental strength and managed to bounce back at the start of the second set by earning breaks in the first and fifth games for a comfortable 4-1 lead.
Down by a double break, Zheng refused to quit and managed to get one break back in the sixth game. Then in the 10th game – with Muchova serving for the set – Zheng had a great chance to completely get back into the set but missed out on four break points before the second-seeded Czech realized her first set point to force a decider.
Zheng came up big in the third set against Muchova
After failing to capitalize on…
