Peterson claims first title in two years at W60 Rancho Santa Fe
Rebecca Peterson claimed her first title in 24 months in emphatic fashion, defeating American teenager Elvina Kalieva 6-4 6-0 to win the W60 Ranco Santa Fe tournament.
The 26-year-old Swede dropped just 18 games in her five matches at the Californian ITF World Tennis Tour event – the perfect response to her three-set defeat in the first round at Indian Wells last week.
Peterson’s win comes two years after her last tournament success, having collected her first WTA titles in Nanchang and Tianjin in September and October 2019, and raises her overall singles title tally to 14.
Despite her positive weekend, the Swede was handed a rude awakening on Monday morning after slipping further short of the career-high ranking of No. 43 she achieved after that run in China in 2019, dropping 21 places to No. 97 in the world.
At the turn of 2018, Peterson was selected by the Grand Slam Development Fund Committee to receive one of $25,000 player grants (alongside 29 other players with exceptional potential), to ease the burden of her competition-related costs and encourage her tennis development.
The support made a near instant impact – Peterson started that season ranked 149 and finished it at No. 63 in the world, having achieved her best Grand Slam result in the process – a third round run at the 2018 US Open.
Discover more Grand Slam development fund success stories here
Elsewhere on the ITF World Tennis Tour this weekend, there were W25 title triumphs for Croatian teenager Antonia Ruzic, who won on Portuguese soil in Lagos, Dea Herdzelas, a winner at W25 Lima, and Colombian 20-year-old Emiliana Arango, who won the title on American soil in Florence.
Eight players also won titles at W15 tournaments over the weekend, with wins for Slovenian Nastja Kolar, China’s Zhuoxuan Bai, Russia’s Daria Kudashova, Spaniard Rosa Vicens Mas, Italian Miriana Tona, Latvian Darja Semenistaja, American Raveena Kingsley and Austrian Tamira Paszek.
Paszek, the 30-year-old former world No. 26 and two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist, took home her first singles and doubles trophies in over seven years with a double triumph in Monastir.
Her win over Natsumi Kawaguchi gave her a first taste of singles silverware since she won the W25 title at Rancho Santa Fe in February 2014, while her doubles triumph alongside Frenchwoman Yasmine Monsouri was her first doubles crown since she won a $50,000 ITF event in Las Vegas with CoCo Vandeweghe in September 2013.