Qualifier knocks off three high seeds to win FineMark Women’s Pro Tennis Championship

The Kentucky Derby didn’t produce the only unexpected winner this weekend.

Qualifier Gabriela Lee stunned the field by winning the third FineMark Women’s Pro Tennis Championship, one of only five Women’s USTA Pro Circuit Tournament events annually nationwide, on Sunday.

Lee, 26, of Romania, with a pre-event WTA ranking of 234, had to win a qualifying match on May 3 to be part of the 32-player singles draw. She earned $15,239 for her fifth ITF title.

Lee defeated seventh-seed Katarzyna Kawa of Poland, 6-1, 6-3 in the final played at Bonita Bay Club. She also knocked off the event’s No. 1 seed and last year’s singles runner-up Irina Maria Bara of Romania and No. 3 seed and last year’s champion Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek, California, respectively, in the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Utilizing a powerful topspin forehand and backhand, she hit a drop shot winner to earn her first break of Kawa’s service to go up 3-1 in the first set and ran off the next three games. Kawa stormed back to lead 3-0 in the second stanza, but Lee broke again with an overhead slam to make it 3-2 and kept the pedal down the rest of the way.

“I was patient,” said Lee, who trains in Frisco, Texas. “It was an unbelievable week. Katarzyna has a great game.”

On her strategy of sprinkling in drop shots, she said “I like to make opponents run.”

After accepting the $8,147 runner-up check, Kawa thanked the crowd for “giving me energy as I was tired.”

In her semifinal match on Saturday, Lee, after dropping the first set to Volynets 6-2 and then being down 3-1 in the second, served a love game and won three in a row toward a tiebreak. Two drop-shot winners were integral to winning it 7-5. Volynets retired due to a thigh injury after losing the first game of the third set.

Kawa, ranked 158, topped Xiyu Wang, the fourth seed from China, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) in a nearly three-hour marathon in the other singles semifinal.

Due to a rain delay from Saturday, the second doubles semifinal was played after the singles final. Kawa and Belarusian Olga Govortsova defeated Whitney Osuigwe of Bradenton and Renata Zarazua of Mexico, 6-3, 6-3.

In the doubles final, Timea Babos of Hungary and Nao Hibino of Japan topped Kawa and Govortsova, 6-4, 3-6 (10-7), splitting $5,573.

Players vied for $100,000 in total prize money and WTA Tour points in the tournament that started May 2. Half the singles field were American players.

The USTA provided the Bonita Bay Club with three wild card entries, which bestowed thewm to the FGCU women’s tennis team. Sophomore Fanny Norin played in the singles field while coach Courtney Vernon and junior Emma Bardet teamed up in doubles play.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Gabriela Lee wins Women’s USTA Pro Circuit Tournament event at Bonita Bat