Stephens holds off Linette in Rouen, captures eighth career title (2024)

2024 Rouen • April 21, 2024

No.6 seed Sloane Stephens of the United States battled to her eighth career Hologic WTA Tour singles title on Sunday, defeating unseeded Magda Linette of Poland 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 to win the inaugural WTA 250 Open Capfinances Rouen Métropole in Rouen, France.

Stephens needed 2 hours and 10 minutes to prevail in the indoor-clay final and capture her first WTA title in over two years. Prior to this week, the American's most recent final had occurred in February of 2022, when she won the WTA 250 Abierto Akron Zapopan title in Guadalajara.

"Coming here was kind of a last-minute decision, so I'm really happy to be through and win another title," Stephens said after her latest victory. "It's my first title indoors, I think, so that's really nice and really cool, and just a really nice way to start off the clay-court swing."

Former World No.3 Stephens is now 4-0 against Linette, and the American also holds an 8-3 win-loss record in WTA singles finals. Stephens has now won five WTA 250 titles in her career, along with her Grand Slam title (2017 US Open), WTA 1000 title (2018 Miami) and WTA 500 title (2016 Charleston).

"Magda played well, we've played a bunch of different times," Stephens said. "She played really well in the second [set] and I just had to kind of figure it out in the third, which I did, which I was really happy about. A tough match, but I knew it was going to be tough from the beginning, so I was prepared for that."

Tale of the match:Stephens had dropped her first set of the tournament to her fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-1, but after that, Stephens looked unstoppable en route to the final. She won her next eight sets of the week without losing more than three games in any of them.

Stephens brought that world-beating form into the opening set of Sunday's final. She reeled off six consecutive games to take the one-set lead, closing out the opener with a backhand winner.

However, in the second set, the pendulum swung the other way. Stephens netted a volley which would have given her a 2-1 lead, and Linette took control in the set from there, racking up five games in a row to lead 5-1.

Former Top 20 player Linette took the second set two games later -- the first set she had ever won off of Stephens in their four career meetings.

In the end, though, Stephens got back on track. A critical four-deuce game at 1-1 went the American's way without having to face a break point, and after getting through that tussle, Stephens took charge, earning a break for 3-1 after Linette sent a backhand miscue wide.

Stephens needed six chances to close out the final, losing serve from 40-0 up at 5-1, then missing out on her next two championship points at 5-2. But the American was able to hold on and grasp the trophy after one final Linette backhand flew wide.

Stephens got 81 percent of her first-serve points into play in the final, where she converted six of her 15 break points.

Babos, Khromacheva claim doubles title:The doubles final wrapped up the tournament, where No.2 seeds Timea Babos and Irina Khromacheva captured the title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the all-British pairing of Naiktha Bains and Maia Lumsden.

Babos and Khromacheva needed 1 hour and 16 minutes to prevail on Sunday. The victors garnered fewer break points than their opponents, but they saved six of seven, while also converting three of the six they held.

Rouen marks the milestone 25th WTA doubles title for Babos, a former WTA Doubles World No.1. It is Babos' first WTA doubles title since she won 2020 Roland Garros with Kristina Mladenovic. Meanwhile, this is Khromacheva's third WTA doubles title, and her first partnering Babos.