‘It means a lot for my country’ – Mayar Sherif makes history for Egypt with Parma Ladies Open triumph

Mayar Sherif pulled off a surprise by beating top seed Maria Sakkari at the Parma Ladies Open and, in doing so, became the first woman from Egypt to win a Hologic WTA Tour title.

No.74 Sherif stunned No.7 Sakkari 7-5 6-3, breaking her opponent four times in the opening set to give her a solid platform on which to build.

Sakkari forced a tiebreak at 5-6 but failed to convert three game points from 40-15 up. The top seed misfired on back-to-back forehands to drop the set after 54 minutes.

After falling 2-0 behind in the second set, Sherif broke back, levelling the set at 2-2 and lost just one more game for the remainder of the match.

“It means a lot for my country,” a delighted Sherif said.

“It means a lot for the people back home, my family, all the hard work, all the mental struggles in the last weeks. I’m just thrilled and happy. This was never expected.

After rain cancelled play on Friday, Sherif was forced to play both her semi-final and final on Saturday, requiring almost three hours to beat No.6 seed Ana Bogdan 6-4 2-6 6-4 in the semi-finals.

“I’m exhausted,” Sherif said.

“Today was a very tough day for me, many hours on court. I’m very happy that I pulled it off. I had to dig very deep.

“The first match was emotionally and mentally tough. There were so many key moments in the match, a lot of pressure. But after I won that match it gave me a lot of confidence so I used that for the match right after.”