McCartney Kessler defeats top seed Beatriz Haddad Maia to win Tennis in the Land

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CLEVELAND, Ohio – McCartney Kessler won a hard-fought three-set match on Saturday to capture her first-ever WTA singles championship at the Tennis in the Land tournament.

The 25-year-old defeated Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 to become not only the first wildcard but also the first American to win Tennis in the Land. She also defeated her first three top-50 opponents, all in the same tournament.

“It's been a great week,” Kessler said. “It's exciting to win my first WTA title, but also to recognize the progress I've made this week and hope I can keep going.”

Haddad Maia entered the final as the favorite, ranked 23rd in the WTA world, while Kessler was ranked 98th. Haddad Maia was the highest-seeded team in the tournament, and it showed in the first set, when she came out strong to win 6-1.

In set two, however, the momentum began to turn in Kessler's favor. After losing game one, Kessler won six games in a row, including two golden games, holding Haddad Maia to zero points.

It was after a crucial victory in game three of this set that the crowd began to electrify. One fan chanted, One serve, one point, one game at a time! while others joined in with chants of Go to work, cart, go to work! and Keep fighting, McCartney! It was clear that the American was the crowd's favorite.

[The crowd] was really helpful, Kessler said. There were a lot of people cheering me on, so it made it more fun to compete and work hard to win in the end.

In the third set the intensity increased and both players seemed more evenly matched than in the previous two sets. They exchanged games and powerful long volleys, but neither player pulled away.

In the end, Haddad Maia took a 5-4 lead, needing just one more game to secure the championship. Despite the high pressure of an important game ahead, and an out-of-bounds call on a ball that the crowd seemed to think was in-bounds, Kessler remained calm and collected.

“I just tried to stay calm and focus on the moment,” Kessler said. “Even though I was down 5-4, I felt like I was starting to play better tennis compared to the beginning of the match, so I could just focus on the right game plan and try to keep my composure.”

Kessler tied the set at 5-5 with a golden game, and then moved ahead 6-5, needing just one more game to win the championship. After Haddad Maia's final shot sailed long into championship point to secure the victory for Kessler, the crowd erupted in thunderous applause and cheers, along with Kessler's coaching team led by her brother McClain, who was also a collegiate and professional tennis player.

Haddad Maia and Kessler will both compete in the US Open, which begins Monday in New York City. Kessler will play No. 19 Marta Kostyuk on Monday, while Haddad Maia will face unranked Elina Avanesyan on Tuesday.

When asked about the short lead time of the US Open, Kessler said she will do her best to prepare for her next match.

I feel like I'm playing really good tennis, but next week is another week, so I'm going to try to recover and prepare as best as I can for Monday, Kessler said.

Kessler walked away with a championship prize of $35,250. Doubles champions Yifan Xu (China) and Cristina Bucsa (Spain) won $12,820 for their finals victory just before the singles championship.

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