All in a day's work: Kayla nets career-best W100 Bonita Springs title
Former junior world No. 1 Kayla Day pulled no punches when describing the magnitude of victory after sealing the biggest title of her career at W100 Bonita Springs in southwest Florida.
Santa Barbara-born Day, who was crowned US Open girls’ champion in 2016, defeated fellow American Ann Li 6-2 6-2 in the final to claim her first silverware since conquering all before her at W25 Redding in October.
Victory has propelled Day a healthy 46 places to No. 137 in the WTA standings and in sight of her career-high ranking of No. 122, which she achieved in June 2017. In the intervening period, she has slipped as low as No. 578 following a succession of injuries.
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Restored to full health and fitness, the 23-year-old is now making her presence felt and later this month will take her place in Roland Garros qualifying, which gets underway on 22 May, as she bids to reach the main draw in Paris for the first time.
“This is my first 100k title and this one means a lot,” wrote Day on Instagram.
Kayla Day was crowned US Open girls' champion in 2016
Left-hander Day dropped just one set during W100 Bonita Springs and that came against fellow home favourite Caroline Dolehide in the semi-finals. Her wins against France’s Emma Bardet, Katarzyna Kawa of Poland, Mexico’s Marcela Zacarias and in Li were all in straight sets.
Day now has four ITF World Tennis Tour titles to her name since her first at Macon in US state of Georgia in 2016, while her latest triumph was her second on clay, with the other two coming on a hard court.