Cocciaretto rises as the first champion of the WTA of San Luis

In a period of five months, the Italian tennis player Elisabetta Cocciaretto built an unforgettable bond with Mexico, being the place that allowed her to obtain her first two crowns on the WTA Tour. The most recent occurred on April 2 and will remain framed for history, since she became the first champion of the 125 St. Louis Open.

Cocciaretto arrived at the WTA in St. Louis as the best seed among the 22 members of the main draw, ranked 49 in the world, above figures such as the Canadian Leylah Fernández (53), the Russian Anna Kalinskaya (64) or the Japanese Naomi Osaka (69). The last antecedent of her before playing on San Luis Potosí soil was the first round of Indian Wells, where she lost to the Spanish Nuria Párrizas.

Little by little, the 22-year-old Italian was fulfilling the forecasts in San Luis Potosí. He began his participation with a hard blow for the local fans by leaving out the Mexican Marcela Zacarías, but later he won the affection of the stands with victories against high-profile figures such as the Argentine Nadia Podoroska, the Slovenian Tamara Zidansek, the Russian Elina Avanesyan and, in the grand final, her compatriot, Sara Errani.

The duel against Errani had high expectations because it was a generational change for Italian women’s tennis. On the one hand, Cocciaretto with his 22 years and only one title on the WTA Tour (125 in Tampico, just in October 2022), facing the seniority of Errani, 35 years old and nine titles, product of a curriculum of 19 singles finals.

But on the field of the Potosino Sports Center, age and statistics were forgotten. Cocciaretto managed to hold serve after 4-4 in the second set and confirmed his position within the top 50 in the world with cunning and resilience until building the final result: victory with partials of 5-7, 6-4 and 7-5 in a period of two hours and 27 minutes.

This was Cocciaretto’s fourth victory in the same number of matches against Errani, but probably the most special as it is his second title on the tour, which will allow him to increase 160 points in the standings and a prize money of $15,000, with which is close to his first million dollars in income in his tennis career (he reached 904,659 with the St. Louis title).

Despite the victory, Cocciaretto took advantage of the microphones to exalt the figure of his rival: “Sara Errani is an example for all of us, I have grown up admiring her, so sharing a final with her, after all the training sessions, is an honor for me , it’s an example. She has given her all for Italian tennis and if we are here it is because of her”.

Elisabetta Cocciaretto has four WTA 125 tournament finals in the last three years, but her first titles have come between October 2022 and the first days of April 2023 in Mexican territory. With this she begins to raise her name within the Tour, after having won another six titles at the ITF level.

San Luis received a positive evaluation from the WTA

After the first edition of the WTA Open in San Luis, the tournament director, Gustavo Santoscoy Arriaga, pointed out that the evaluation in terms of logistics and satisfaction of the tennis players was positive, which will allow them to have the door open for the event to continue. celebrating in this headquarters in the coming years.

_Is a second edition of the tournament in St. Louis in 2024 already confirmed by the WTA?

“The tournament is now for 2024. We (the organizers) are going to make all our reports to the WTA so that it is so, surely, we are aware that they are going to give us the authorization, the director of the 125 tournaments (Melissa Pine) came ) and he was happy, so we go year by year and once the WTA confirms us for 3, 5 or 10 years we will make it known, but surely after 2024 we will be able to talk about many more years”, Santoscoy replied to El Economista.

The estimation of the tournament organizers before it began was to receive between 12,000 and 13,000 fans in total, in addition to generating an economic benefit of between 50 and 70 million pesos for the state of San Luis Potosí, although until the final between Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Sara Errani these figures have not yet been revealed.

“The tournament director was really surprised by this event. Everyone knows San Luis Potosí, it is a beautiful city with all the services and the club (Deportivo Potosino) has magnificent facilities, meets all expectations and she was very convinced that we can organize this tournament for many more years here. As long as the WTA gives us the opportunity, we will continue trying to bring more tennis to Mexico”.

With the San Luis Open, the Santoscoy family extended its organization of women’s tennis tournaments in Mexico endorsed by the WTA to three, including the 250-level tournament in Mérida and the Masters 1000 in Guadalajara, a projection they have achieved since 2019. However , their expansion plans continue forward.

“After organizing the WTA Finals (in 2021) we were the door to Latin America. Today there are more WTA tournaments in Latin America, the WTA is experiencing a great opportunity and that is why today we already have three events within our organization and we will see what follows. We have talked a lot with the WTA about the possibility of increasing the tournaments, of being able to make Mexico have even more tournaments, because they already say that Mexico is the power of women’s tennis”.