Parks wards off Montgomery to seal double triumph in Orlando
Qualifier Alycia Parks made it a weekend to remember on the ITF World Tennis Tour after winning her first professional titles with victory in both the singles and the doubles events at W25 Orlando.
The 19-year-old American, who was given a wild card into qualifying, won seven matches on the bounce - culminating in a 3-6 6-4 6-2 triumph over promising youngster Robin Montgomery in the singles final. She proved equally clinical in her first appearance in an ITF doubles final alongside Rasheeda McAdoo, defeating Jamie Loeb and Erin Routliffe 4-6 6-1 11-9.
It was a case of third time lucky in singles finals for the American teen, who had lost both of her previous appearances in title matches on the ITF World Tennis Tour – falling to both Hsu Chieh-Yu at W15 Shreveport and Gabriela Talaba at W25 Redding in 2019.
Sixteen-year-old runner-up Montgomery could take plenty of positives from her week in Orlando, where she made her second appearance in an ITF final in just the 10th professional singles tournament of her fledgling career.
The former junior world No. 5 looks set to make a quick transition to the professional realm, having won her first professional singles title in March at W25 Las Vegas and currently sits at No. 491 in the WTA rankings.
Elsewhere, Croatian Lea Boskovic won her fifth professional singles title - and first of 2020 - after a 6-4 6-4 win over Joana Garland of Chinese Taipei at W15 Sharm El Sheikh. Though runner-up on this occasion, 19-year-old Garland is in a good run of form at the Egyptian tournament, having won her first professional title either side of two runner-up finishes at the venue over the past two months.
German Romy Koelzer won her first professional singles title at the age of 29 at W15 Heraklion, surprising top-seeded Alexander Cadantu 6-3 1-6 6-2 in the final. Cadantu had been in good form in Greece, having claimed her first singles title in five years at the same venue at the turn of the month.