{"id":840768,"date":"2026-08-02T23:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T23:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840768\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T23:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T23:57:09","slug":"tennis-wta-the-memphis-classic-2026-liutova-wins-the-tournament-against-vidmanova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840768\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis, WTA \u2013 The Memphis Classic 2026: Liutova wins the tournament against Vidmanova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kristina Liutova, a 16-year-old Russian qualifier, beat Czech Darja Vidmanova 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday to win the Memphis Classic, becoming the youngest WTA titlist since Coco Gauff won Linz as a 15-year-old lucky loser in 2019. It was Liutova\u2019s WTA Tour main draw debut.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Liutova had already become the first player aged 16 or under to reach a WTA Tour final since Gauff\u2019s 2019 run, and she confirmed the milestone by coming from behind in the final itself, trailing 6-1, 1-1 before reeling off nine consecutive games in a finish built on four straight breaks of serve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She reached the title match by beating top seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (2), 4-6, 5-4 (ret.), Australia\u2019s Maya Joint 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, No. 6 seed Caty McNally 6-3, 6-4 and Elvina Kalieva 7-5, 6-1. Having started the season ranked No. 714, she is projected to rise to around No. 126 in the rankings on the back of the title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The win makes Liutova the third teenager to win a WTA title this season, after Mirra Andreeva and Lilli Tagger, and the first player to win a title in her WTA main draw debut event since Maria Timofeeva at 2023 Budapest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vidmanova, ranked No. 114, reached the final by beating Mexico\u2019s Renata Zarazua 6-3, 6-3, American Katie Volynets 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1, former US Open finalist Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-4 and Spain\u2019s Marina Bassols Ribera 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kristina Liutova, a 16-year-old Russian qualifier, beat Czech Darja Vidmanova 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday to win the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-840768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}