Puig wins first career title

Strasbourg - Unseeded Puerto Rican Monica Puig defeated Spanish qualifier Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday to win the Strasbourg clay-court WTA tournament and claim her first career title.

Puig, 20, had not been beyond a WTA quarter-final before this week, but she did not drop a set en route to her first WTA title.

She joins Garbine Muguruza, (Hobart), Tsvetana Pironkova (Sydney), Kurumi Nara (Rio), Caroline Garcia (Bogota), Donna Vekic (Kuala Lumpur), Carla Suarez Navarro (Oeiras) and Eugenie Bouchard (Nuremberg) as first-time WTA titlists this year.

"I woke up this morning and I felt it. I felt I was going to do something amazing. It was one of those feelings where you just know it's going to happen, and I played some of the greatest tennis I've ever played," said Puig.

"I was very focused and very poised on the court, and I'm very happy how things went. I just went on the court and felt it was my moment. I just had to go there and take it."