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Alycia Parks is in the limelight after scoring the biggest win of her career. Currently competing at the AGEL Open in Ostrava, she came through the qualifying rounds and defeated former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 7-6 (3) in the first round.
Parks completely dominated the Czech in the opening set but fell behind 3-1 in the second set. She then reeled off four games in a row to go 5-3 up. However, the American failed to serve out the match on her first attempt and the set went into a tie-break.
Plenty of younger players would've withered under pressure after losing an opportunity to close the proceedings against a seasoned veteran like Pliskova. But Parks showed immense composure to come out on top in the tie-break to win the match.
The 21-year-old's serve is a huge asset and could easily become one of the top servers on the tour in the coming years. At last year's US Open, Parks tied Venus Williams' record for the fastest serve by a woman in the tournament. She has won one title on the ITF circuit while finishing as the runner-up on five occasions.
Parks is still finding her footing on the WTA tour, but if she maintains the level and focus she displayed to defeat Pliskova, it's only a matter of time before she becomes a mainstay on the tour. She has a career-high ranking of No. 135 and is set to surpass it following her run in Ostrava.
Alycia Parks to face Maria Sakkari in second round in Ostrava
Following her win over Pliskova, Alycia Parks is up against World No. 7 Maria Sakkari in the second round. The Greek notched up her best result in quite some time by reaching the final of the Parma Ladies Open last week.
Sakkari's form has been quite up and down over the last few months, so Parks will certainly fancy her chances of scoring yet another upset win. The American's previous encounter against a top 10 player took place at the Berlin Open in June when she faced Ons Jabeur in the second round.
While Parks lost the first set rather tamely, she put up quite the fight in the second set, taking the Tunisian to a tie-break, but fell short of taking the match to a decider.
Regardless of the result against Sakkari, the 21-year-old has shown enough potential to make it big on the women's tour.
