Seven set points, none of them taken
One at 5-3. One at 5-4. Five more in the tiebreak. Ann Li had seven chances to close out the opening set in Monterrey and let all of them slip. Diane Parry took the breaker 9-7 and never gave the set back, beating the American 7-6 (7), 6-4 overnight in the semi-final of the Abierto GNP Seguros.
Parry is 23. She sits 50th in the world. On Saturday she plays the first WTA final of her career.
Li, the No. 5 seed, had the better of the first hour. She hit back at the start of the second set with an immediate break. Parry answered inside two games, levelled at 2-2, and closed it out with one more.
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Mertens has been here 16 times before
Elise Mertens waits on the other side. The Belgian, seeded second, was 6-1, 3-0 down to Nikola Bartunkova and looked finished. She won six of the next seven games. Final score: 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. Both breaks in the decider went her way, one early, one late.
Mertens is 30 and this will be her 17th tour final, with an 11th title in reach. Her last two, Singapore and ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2025, both ended with the trophy.
A wall Parry had never got past
Semi-finals used to be where her weeks ended. Ostrava was her best run of the season until this, and it stopped at the last four. The tour knows her for the one-handed backhand and the flashes of on-court temper more than for deep runs.
Mertens is the favourite on paper. Ranking, finals played, and that recovery against Bartunkova all point the same way. Parry arrives having just refused to lose a set she had no business winning.
They play in Mexico on Saturday.
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