A story worth telling: Parry stuns Mertens for a maiden title in Monterrey

Diane Parry arrived in Monterrey at the last minute and with no expectations. She leaves as a champion. The 23-year-old Frenchwoman claimed the first title of her career on Saturday night, beating second seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 to win the Abierto GNP Seguros – and doing it, remarkably, straight in the WTA 500 category.

“Sometimes that’s where nice stories happen, and it actually did,” Parry said, summing up a week few saw coming. Ranked No 66 and unseeded, she carved a path through the draw that only grew more impressive: past American No 5 seed Ann Li 7-6(7), 6-4, then Clara Tauson and Oleksandra Oliynykova, and in the semi-finals Croatian No 6 seed Donna Vekic 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1.

The final was a rollercoaster worthy of the fortnight. Parry took a tight opening set 6-4, was blown away 6-0 in the second as Mertens surged, then steadied herself to run away with the decider 6-3 and seal the biggest moment of her career.

Parry new world No.31

Parry becomes the first French player wielding a one-handed backhand to win a main-tour title in 17 years and 195 days – the last was Amélie Mauresmo, in Paris in 2009. She is also the first Frenchwoman to win a title above WTA 250 level since Caroline Garcia in 2022, and the fact that her breakthrough comes directly at 500 level makes it all the more striking.

The rewards are immediate. Parry rockets 19 places to a career-high World No 31 on the eve of the US Open. And the timing could hardly be sweeter: she turns 24 on Tuesday, making the trophy the perfect early birthday present.

For Mertens, the No 22 and second seed, it was a chance at silverware that slipped away after she had rediscovered her range in that one-sided second set. The Belgian had reached the final past Nikola Bartunkova, Yuliia Starodubtseva and Hungarian lucky loser Panna Udvardy, before running into an opponent playing with the freedom of someone with nothing to lose.