Alison Riske wins 3rd career title in Linz

It's been a very long wait for Alison Riske who finally found a breakthrough winning her first career title since 2019. The American player who was ranked inside the top 20 two years ago had a very tough year that only recently started trending upward. She is another player whom the pandemic cost as she was playing the best tennis of her career before it began.

Today she was finally able to get back into the winner's circle with a brilliant performance in the Linz final. Both her and Cristian had fabulous weeks in Linz but the more experience Riske proved better today. It started off well with an early break and a 1-0 lead. Riske had 40-0 on her serve but lost that game and from there it went downhill. Cristian, who loves to hit the ball hard, was playing really well and the American failed to respond properly.

2-6 was the score after the first set for Cristian who was one set away from her maiden trophy. It was not meant to be as Riske stormed out determined in the 2nd set. She took an early 3-1 lead before adding another break later on in the set to finally clinch it with 6-2. With momentum firmly on her side, she kept applying the pressure and the Romanian faltered.

Riske broke her at 2-2 for a 3-2 lead but failed to win her serve after some very poor choices and mistakes. She would break her again for the 4-3 lead and after that, we had the crucial game. Riske had chances to close it out but Cristian bravely battle back to make it 4-4. Ultimately Cristian's kryptonite proved her serve as it let her down in the final set. Riske broke her once more and closed it out with 7-5.