Lanlana Tararudee is the Austin125 champion!

Lanlana Tararudee is the Austin125 champion! She arrived in Austin unsure whether she would even make the qualifying draw. One week later, she leaves with the title.

Fans were treated to a thrilling championship match that went the distance. The Thai qualifier faced wildcard Bianca Andreescu in the final and, after taking the opening set 6-3, saw Andreescu raise her level to claim the second by the same score. But Tararudee seized control in the third with gritty, aggressive tennis, building a 5-2 lead before closing it out at 5-3 to secure a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory and the first WTA 125 title of her career.

Currently ranked No. 124 in the world, a new career high, Tararudee is now set to move even closer to the Top 100 after this week’s run. The 21-year-old owns six ITF singles titles and came into Austin with strong momentum, having qualified for the Australian Open, reached the semifinals of the WTA 125 Mumbai Open in February, and qualified for Indian Wells. After battling through qualifying in Austin, she turned an already memorable week into a career-defining one.

This was one of the most stacked WTA 125 events in recent memory, with more than 30 professional players from around the world competing for a share of the $115,000 total purse. The field featured players representing Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico, the Netherlands, Romania, Taiwan, Slovakia, and the United States. In the end, the champion was none other than Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee.