Cape Town - Teliana Pereira completed a dream week at the Claro Open Colsanitas on Sunday, beating Yaroslava Shvedova to become the first Brazilian in 27 years to win a WTA title.
According to the WTA Tour website, the unseeded Pereira, who had already taken out No 4 seed Francesca Schiavone and No 1 seed Elina Svitolina en route to the final, rallied from 4-2 down to sneak out the first set and then cruised the rest of the way against the No 5-seeded Shvedova, capturing the title after a 7-6 (7/2), 6-1 victory.
The last time a Brazilian woman captured a WTA title was at Barcelona all the way back in April 1988, when Neige Dias came through - a few months later, on July 20, 1988, Pereira came into the world.
"This has been the best week of my life," an overjoyed Pereira said after the match.
"When I was training, I always dreamt of winning a WTA championship, and now I've done it. Playing the Medellín challenger before this was very important to me because there was a little altitude there, too, and that helped me get ready for the conditions here. I think I played very well all week.
"I felt very solid all week and I'm so happy to win my first WTA title here in Bogotá."
Pereira was already the first Brazilian woman to even reach a WTA final since Dias' aforementioned Barcelona title run - she matched that feat with her win over Svitolina on Saturday. She was asked about her countrywoman afterwards. "I've never seen her, but I know her name," she said, "because two years ago when I made the semifinals here, it was a big result for Brazil and I heard her name."
The doubles final took place later in the day, and there was even more for Brazilian fans to cheer about there - Pereira's young compatriots, Paula Cristina Goncalves and Beatriz Haddad Maia, battled past Americans Irina Falconi and Shelby Rogers in a match tie-break for the title, 6-3, 3-6, 10-6.
Both Goncalves and Haddad Maia came away with their first WTA titles of any kind.
Falconi and Rogers beat top seeds Anastasia Rodionova and Arina Rodionova en route to the final.
The Claro Open Colsanitas in Bogotá is the fourth of five WTA stops in Latin America this year, after Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (where Sara Errani won the title) and Acapulco and Monterrey, México (where Timea Bacsinszky won back-to-back titles). The fifth will be in Florianopolis, Brazil in July.
Results from the seventh day of the WTA Bogota Open on Sunday (x denotes seeding):
Teliana Pereira (BRA) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 7-6 (7/2), 6-1