Julia Grabher in Rabat for the first time in a WTA final

The 26-year-old from Vorarlberg defeated Argentina’s Julia Riera 6:1,3:6,7:6(6) in her first WTA Tour semi-final on Friday. The Dornbirner, who will improve her ranking towards the top 60, could become the first Austrian Tour tournament winner in ten years in Rabat. At that time, Yvonne Meusburger won her only WTA title in Bad Gastein.

Günter Bresnik’s protégé will meet either ex-US Open winner Sloane Stephens (USA), who is number two, or Italian Lucia Bronzetti in the final on Saturday. Grabher already has 180 WTA points and gross prize money of $20,226. In the live ranking, she climbed into the top 60 for the first time.

As the current finalist, she will certainly not have to play her first match against a qualifier at the French Open on Sunday. For Grabher it is the premiere in the main draw of Roland Garros or her second major tournament after the Australian Open last January (first round elimination).

Grabher went into the match as the favorite, although Riera (WTA-195.) had knocked out two seeded players beforehand. She started strong with a break to make it 2-0 and with another one to make it 5-1 and a service game that was zero, the Dornbirn native quickly had the first set in her pocket.

In the second set she was already leading 3:1, but then had to accept the rebreak to make it 3:3. She couldn’t use two breakballs to make it 4:3 and had to give up the service to make it 3:5 and then the set. Set three began with three service losses en suite, two of which Grabher suffered. She fell 1:3 and 2:4 behind, but then managed the second rebreak to make it 4:4 with a clean sheet. Then it went into the tie break, in which she was 0:2 behind. But in the end, Grabher showed again why she recently had such an upward trend: strong nerves and fighting power. She used the second match ball for the greatest success so far.