Qualifier Maria completes dream run at Queen's, wins fourth career title

Tatjana Maria knocked off four Top 20 players in a row to capture her first WTA 500 title at the HSBC Championships. She becomes the oldest titlist on tour since Serena Williams in 2020.

Thanks to four Top 20 wins in a row, Tatjana Maria has been rewarded with her biggest career title -- as a 37-year-old mother of two.

Capping off her incredible week of upsets, German qualifier Maria captured the WTA 500 HSBC Championships title on Sunday with a 6-3, 6-4 final victory over No. 8 seed Amanda Anisimova.

Queen's Club: Draws | Scores | Order of play

In their only previous meeting, Maria had beaten Anisimova in Beijing qualifying back in 2018. All these years later, the World No.86 defeated her again with her slice-and-dice game, carving her way to a win after 1 hour and 23 minutes of play.

With her daughters 11-year-old Charlotte and 4-year-old Cecilia joining husband/coach Charles in the front row of the stands, Maria became the oldest singles champion on the Hologic WTA Tour since another returning mother, Serena Williams, won the 2020 Auckland title aged 38.

Happy return: It is fitting that a veteran player won the title here, given that this was the first time since 1973 that WTA tennis has been contested at the prestigious Queen's Club in London. 52 years after Olga Morozova won the most recent Queen's Club WTA title, Maria follows her on the championship trophy.

With the win, Maria maintained her undefeated record in WTA singles finals, improving to 4-0 when a title is on the line. The German won her first WTA title on grass at Mallorca in 2018, and then she became a Bogota expert, winning that clay-court event back-to-back in 2022 and 2023.

Sunday, though, marked Maria's first career final above WTA 250-level. The step up in level did not faze her, and after beating Top 20 players Karolina Muchova, Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys consecutively to make the championship match, Maria completed her quartet of high-caliber wins with one final triumph.

The only other time Maria had defeated multiple Top 20 players at a single event was during one of her other spectacular grass-court runs -- she ousted Maria Sakkari and Jelena Ostapenko en route to the 2022 Wimbledon semifinals. And, in fact, those were her most recent Top 20 wins until this week.

Tale of the tape: Ranked at a new career-high of World No. 15, Anisimova also had a wonderful week, besting Top 10 players Emma Navarro and Zheng Qinwen back-to-back in the last two rounds. It was the first time Anisimova had advanced beyond the quarterfinals of a grass-court WTA event.

But Maria's combo of slices, speed and big serves had proved too strong on the grass this week for every player she faced, and Anisimova was no exception. At one point, Maria won 12 points in a row during her run to a 4-1 lead in Sunday's first set.

Anisimova cranked a rally backhand winner to pull back on serve at 4-3, but Maria refused to yield the momentum, scampering all over the court to win the next two games and clinch the one-set lead. Even with her unorthodox shots, Maria hit only three unforced errors in the first set.

In the second set, Maria raced out to a 4-1 lead again. The German's seventh ace of the day gave her a 5-3 lead, and she served out the match two games later to attain victory.

More to come...

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