Cristina Bucsa claimed her first WTA Tour title on Sunday evening in Mérida, where Britain’s Maia Lumsden fell in the doubles final, and Peyton Stearns captured her second singles trophy in Austin earlier in the day…
It has been part of the vision for a few years. However, some things take time. Peyton Stearns
Mérida, Mexico – WTA 500 Mérida Open 2026
Spain’s Cristina Bucsa capped her dream run in Mexico by lifting the WTA 500 Mérida Open trophy on Sunday evening after beating Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1 4-6 6-4 in the final to claim her first tour-level title.
“Magdalena, congratulations on this incredible week,” said the 28-year-old Spaniard during the trophy presentation. “We have done our utmost and here we have shown how strong we are. So you are also a great champion.
“I wish you a very quick recovery for Indian Wells and hope to see you in many more finals.”
Her road to the title was tough: she defeated former Wimbledon semifinalist and Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic of Croatia in straight sets in the first round, then defeated Canada’s Marina Stakusic and 2024 Merida champion Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey to reach the semifinals, where she scored her first Top 10 win over top seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy in convincing fashion with her fourth straight victory in two sets a week.
After upsetting Paolini, Bucsa converted 5 break points and 32 of her 43 first serve points, 74.4%, to outlast Frech in a hard-fought battle lasting 2 hours and 15 minutes in the final, dropping her first set of the tournament.
The eight-time doubles champion came out strong, grabbing Frech’s first serve of the match and, despite being broken at some point herself, cruised through the first set.
Bucsa seemed on its way to another routine victory, but the Pole had other ideas and jumped to a 3-0 lead in the second, taking advantage of a brief drop in level from the Spaniard, who promptly fought back to 3-2.
However, Frech held firm and won a marathon rally to close out the set and force the decider, in which Bucsa quickly rediscovered her form, two positions to love with a brilliant cross-court backhand winner to break for 3–1, and she maintained her lead until the penultimate game, when she was given the chance to serve for the title.
Instead, Frech struck and won four straight points to break for 5–4, but again Bucsa responded resiliently by drilling another backhand winner to earn a championship point on the Pole’s serve, where an early double fault gave the Spaniard her winning moment.
For Bucsa it is her first singles trophy at any level since 2023, when she won the WTA 125 in Limoges.
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Her evening was certainly not over as she had another chance to win more silverware alongside China’s Jiang Xinyu in the doubles final.
In her 12th WTA doubles trophy match with her 10th different partner, she completed the sweep in Mérida, winning her 8th WTA doubles title, while Jiang earned her 7th, and first above WTA 250 level.
The pair made quick work of Britain’s Maia Lumsden and Isabelle Haverlag of the Netherlands to win 6-4 6-1 in 61 minutes for their first title together as partners.
With the doubles trophy secured, the two titles capped a career-defining week for the Spaniard, who had long shown her talent in doubles but had yet to make the same breakthrough in singles.
Now, in addition to her eight doubles titles, including a WTA 1000, and a bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics, Bucsa can boast a WTA 500 singles title, while also owning one WTA 125 and four ITF singles titles.
Her success in Mérida will see her rise to number 31 in singles on Monday.
Frech also sees a significant jump in the rankings after starting the week outside the Top 50, having defeated Maria Timofeeva, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Marie Bouzkova and Zhang Shuai on her way to her third career final and second in Mexico.
The loss drops The Pole to 1-2 in the WTA finals, but rises 21 places to number 36 in the singles this week.
In the second straight all-American final at the WTA 250 ATX Open in Austin, former University of Texas star Peyton Stearns came from 3-5 down in the first set and saved 3 set points en route to defeating Taylor Townsend to win her second WTA singles title.
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Austin, Texas | WTA 250 ATX opened
Home favorite Peyton Stearns, the No. 4 seed, captured her second singles title at the WTA 250 ATX Open on Sunday afternoon in Austin, Texas, beating compatriot Taylor Townsend 7-6(8) 7-5.
Stearns outlasted Townsend in a grueling 2-hour, 22-minute match in which she fired 8 aces and saved 4 of the 7 break points she faced.
An All-American and national singles champion, and part of two NCAA team titles at the University of Texas at Austin, Stearns thrived on her home court advantage.
She adopted Austin as her home tournament and wanted to win the WTA 250 since it was scheduled for 2023, the year she won her first WTA main draw match here, and made the quarterfinals as a wild card less than a year after winning the NCAA Division I national singles trophy.
After coming from a set down to beat Britain’s Fran Jones at the first hurdle and snapping her three-match skid at the event, Stearns admitted she thought “it would be nice if a Longhorn finally won this tournament.”
“So hopefully I’ll be the first,” she said.
Ranked No. 53, Stearns came into this year’s tournament having lost in the first round in each of her last two appearances here, and when she lost the opening set of her first match of the week against Jones, an unlucky hat trick looked like a possibility, but she rallied to win, winning two more 3-setters in the three subsequent rounds to advance to her first tour-level singles final in almost two full years.
“It’s been part of the vision for a few years now,” Stearns told reporters, referring to her previous struggles at the ATX Open. “However, some things take time.”
It was her first on hard courts, having last reached a final on tour in May 2024, when she won the WTA 250 on clay in Rabat, Morocco.
She was behind again against Townsend, after losing the only previous meeting between the two compatriots.
The southpaw, competing in her first WTA singles final, led for almost the entire first set and had two set points on Stearns’ serve at 5-3, but the 24-year-old saved them both, and another in the tiebreak, before finally wrapping up the set herself on her fifth chance.
In the second, Townsend emerged from a break down twice to get within 2 points of forcing a third set, but Stearns held firm and held serve for 5-5 after being pushed to deuce from 40-0, a match that sparked a run of 3 in a row that won her the match.
For Townsend, the run to the final was a powerful statement as, despite being ranked 119, she showed elite form to beat Ashlyn Krueger, Rebeka Masarova and Nikola Bartunkova, while her semi-final victory, a gritty comeback against Linda Fruhvirtova, set the stage for Sunday’s showdown.
Ultimately, Stearns’ ability to find the lines in the game’s biggest moments proved to be the difference.
“I think whoever won that first set knew it was to their advantage,” Stearns thought, acknowledging how crucial those tense moments were.
As the tour now heads to Indian Wells, Stearns continues the momentum of a hard-earned second career title, while Townsend’s resurgence marks a rapid climb up the rankings, rising 32 places to No. 87.
Townsend made sure she didn’t leave Austin empty-handed, however, and two hours later she and Australia’s Storm Hunter, the top seeds in doubles, lifted the trophy with a 6-3 6-4 win over the No. 3 seeds. Eudice Chong & Liang En-shuo from Hong Kong in 80 minutes.
Top doubles seeds Taylor Townsend & Storm Hunter lifted the Austin Trophy on Sunday with a win over No. 3 seeds Eudice Chong & Liang En-shuo in 80 minutes
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