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Veteran Francesca Schiavone rolled back the years to claim the Claro Open Colsanitas title with a straight-sets win over Lara Arruabarrena that keeps her hopes of reaching the French Open intact.
Schiavone, 36, is playing her last season on the WTA Tour and a 6-4 7-5 victory leaves her placed just outside the world's top 100.
The Italian came into the clay-court season having not won a main-draw match this year, but had deposed Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson en route to facing 2012 champion Arruabarrena in the Bogota final.
Schiavone, whose sole grand slam victory came at Roland Garros in 2010, showed all her trademark grit to save four set points against the fourth seed in the second set.
And the veteran went on to close out the match and win an eighth career WTA Tour title.
FORZA!@Schiavone_Fra captures @CopaWTABogota title! pic.twitter.com/ZOUJFKdlmp
— WTA (@WTA) April 15, 2017
"I'm very happy and emotional," Schiavone said on court.
"[It] was a disaster match, but winning was the most important thing. Lara is improving a lot/ I think she pulled a muscle and couldn't run as well that she could, but I thank God that I could win the last three games."
