Australian teenager Maya Joint saved four championship points in a thrilling final-set tie-break to beat Alexandra Eala of the Philippines and win the Eastbourne title on her tournament debut.
Joint, 19, who had a match point of her own saved at 7-6 in the tie-break, won 6-4 1-6 7-6 (12-10) and will climb into the world’s top 50 for the first time when the rankings are updated on Monday.
Meanwhile, runner-up Eala became the first Filipina to play in the final of a WTA Tour event and the 20-year-old continues to also look a player destined for big things.
Joint missed out later in the day when she finished on the beaten team in the doubles final.
She and her partner, Taiwanese nine-time Grand Slam winner Hsieh Su-wei, were beaten 6-4 7-5 by Czech-Kazakh duo Marie Bouzkova and Anna Danilina.
Joint was hoping to become the first player to win both the singles and doubles titles in the same year at Eastbourne since Czech Jana Novotna did so in 1998 – weeks before she also won both events at Wimbledon.
