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| Camila Osorio is the first queen of the PWO. Cesca Rampas |
MANILA—Camila Osorio made history on Saturday night as the inaugural winner of the Philippine Women's Open singles event, defeating Donna Vekic in a three-set final, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
Succumbing to a blistering start by Vekic, Osorio bounced back with a similarly dominant Set 2 to force the deciding set.
For the first eight games of Set 3, both Vekic and Osorio held their serves, but in Game 9, Osorio got a big opportunity to clinch the match when she broke Vekic's serve to go 5-4 up, upsetting the latter.
Composing herself again during the timeout, Vekic got the service break back in Game 10, but Osorio scored another break point in Game 11, and this time, she did not give Vekic a chance to force a tiebreak.
An ace on her match point was the fitting ending to Osorio's impressive run, which included eliminating hometown favorite Alex Eala in the quarterfinals.
"It's really important for me because it's the first time I won in a tournament on a hard court and outside of my home," said the Colombian tennis star, who won US$15,500 (around PHP913,000) for ruling the WTA 125 event.
Osorio is set to fly immediately to Romania for the Transylvania Open, a WTA 250 event, while Vekic will travel back to Croatia to get some rest.
