Diana Shnaider beat Leylah Fernandez 6-4 5-7 6-2 in the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Sunday, 1 November, while Britain's Harriet Dart won the first WTA title of her career at the Guangzhou Open. Both finals went to three sets.
Shnaider survives a Fernandez fightback
The No. 3 seed looked on course for a quick win when she led 6-4 4-0. Fernandez then won seven of the next eight games to take the second set 7-5, and earned three break points in the opening games of the decider. Shnaider saved all three, broke in the fifth game and won the last three games to close out the match in 2 hours and 18 minutes, the WTA reported.
It is the 22-year-old's first title of the season and the sixth of her career, and her third at WTA 500 level. Shnaider had lost all four semi-finals she reached this year, but she has now won six finals in a row; her only defeat in a final came on her debut at that level, against Ons Jabeur in Ningbo in 2023. She is projected to rise to No. 11 in Monday's rankings, matching her career high. "It means definitely a lot, so definitely a great achievement and a great finish to the season," she said.
For Fernandez, it is a second straight Sunday defeat in a final, a week after losing to Elena Rybakina in Ningbo, Tennis Majors noted. The Canadian still ends her Asian swing with back-to-back finals.
Dart's 'wild week' in Guangzhou
Harriet Dart, 30, came through qualifying and beat 18-year-old Austrian Lilli Tagger 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the Guangzhou final. Tagger, the 2025 Roland-Garros junior champion and ranked 53rd, twice wiped out Dart's lead in the deciding set, but Dart broke for a third time at 4-3. She missed two championship points in the ninth game, then served out the match and finished it with a service winner, BBC Sport reported.
"It's crazy to be sitting here as champion after coming through qualifying," she told the BBC. "It's been a wild week." It was the fourth time in seven matches that week that she won after losing the first set. Ranked 115th and British No. 5 before the tournament, Dart returns to the top 100 on Monday, which should give her a direct place in the Australian Open main draw in January. She has won 19 of her 24 tour-level hard-court matches since Wimbledon and works with former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli.
What comes next
This week the tour moves on to Hong Kong and Chennai; see our WTA Finals guide for the season finale. Elsewhere on Sunday, Bianca Andreescu plays Tatjana Maria in the Querétaro final. All scores are on our tennis results page.
Sources
This article was written by TiebreakNews from the reporting below, checked against official results and rankings.
- WTA Tennis — Shnaider survives Fernandez fightback to win sixth career crown in Tokyo
- BBC Sport — Britain's Dart wins first WTA title in 'wild week'
- WTA Tennis — Dart's dream Guangzhou run ends with maiden WTA title