Maia serves up maiden Pro-Series title victory

Maia Lumsden (pic courtesy of Tennis Scotland)

The 19-year-old took the Aegon GB Pro-Series crown at Wirrall with a 6-4 6-2 win over Poland’s Maja Chwalinska in the final.

The event was the third in a series of three ITF $15,000 events in the UK over the past few weeks, following tournaments in Glasgow and Edgbaston in previous weeks

In both of those events Maia went out in the second round, but it was third time lucky in the Wirrall tournament.

Maia, ranked 846, defeated Britain’s Olivia Nicholls 6-4 6-3 in the opening round to book a last 16 clash with Belgian number seven seed Marie Benoit.

Benoit, world 399, had beaten Maia the previous week in Edsgbaston but the Lenzie player turned the tables, winning a tight match 7-6 7-6.

American Emina Bektas was beaten in the quarter-finals, Maia coming form behind to win 5-7 6-1 6-2 and French number four seed Harmony Tan, world 372, took just three games off Maia in the semi-final, going down 6-2 6-1.

In the final Maia took the first set 6-4 before running away with the second 6-1 to take the title.

It was almost a remarkable family double as Maias’s younger brother Ewen also reached the final of an ITF indoor junior tournament in Holland.