Hobart: Rising American Emma Navarro defeated two-time champion Elise Mertens on Saturday at the Hobart International, winning a tough 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 match to claim her first WTA championship.
The 22-year-old wrote another chapter in her rapidly developing career by defeating the top-seeded Belgian player over the course of a demanding 2 hours and 48 minutes in their first career match.
Navarro was rated 149 at this time last year, but he has now surged to a career-high 31 and made it to the Auckland semi-finals this month.
She is 8-1 on the season going into the Australian Open, where, ranked 27th, she will play her first match on the main draw against Wang Xiyu of China.
Mertens rallied and second seed Navarro lost the second set after winning the first in just 35 minutes.
With a 5-4 lead, the Belgian, who captured the Hobart tournament in 2017 and 2018, appeared poised to win the third set and win the title.
However, Navarro closed out the match by winning the following two games to revers the tide in her favor.
