19-year-old Russian ace Diana Shnaider seals maiden WTA title downing defending champion Zhu Lin at Thailand Open Hua Hin

On a Sunday which also sees the Upper Austria Ladies Linz completed, the first champion of the day has been crowned post Australian Open as Russian ace, Diana Shnaider has captured a maiden WTA title at Thailand Open Hua Hin 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.

It could be said that despite it being a shock on paper, it has been coming for the 19-year-old who reached the top 60 in the WTA Rankings and a maiden WTA Final in her debut season. It was a fourth career Quarter-Final in this instance and then a second career final, she only lost last season in the championship match to Ons Jabeur in Ningbo.

Read also

PRIZE MONEY and Points Breakdown 2024 Thailand Open Hua Hin with $267,082 on offer

Like many rising stars, she took the college route placing for NC State for one season before turning pro and perhaps was overshadowed slightly in her first year on tour in terms of Russian stakes by Mirra Andreeva's excellence, but has sealed a title before the 16-year-old.

She is the second teenager to win a WTA title this season and joins World No.3 Coco Gauff in doing so after sealing the ASB Classic in Auckland in January. She saw off Magda Linette, Lin Zhu and Wang Xiyu to seal the title, the top three seeds this week in Hua Hin so certainly had to work for it.

She enjoyed a blistering start to the final taking the opening set after 44 minutes overpowering Zhu on the baseline and took her chances to break. She converted the two break points that she was given and handed Lin Zhu her first set loss of the week. Zhu took advantage of a slip in the form of Shnaider in the second set winning four consecutive games to force it into a deciding set. Bet as is the case with WTA Tennis, it is one extreme to another as Shnaider produced some epic baseline winners and broke earlier not relenting from the baseline as she broke twice for 4-1 and then closed out the win from there 6-1. A superb final win, the first of many?

Read also

WTA DRAW 2024 Abu Dhabi Open: Round Two potential clashes include RYBAKINA-OSAKA, JABEUR-RADUCANU and SAKKARI-GARCIA

wta

@WTA

·Follow

The MOMENT ✨ Diana Shnaider is crowned the champion in Thailand after defeating Zhu Lin 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. #ThailandOpen

Watch on Twitter

592

Reply

Copy link

Read 23 replies