No. 3 Lisa Pigato defeated Czech No. 8 Gabriela Knutson 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday afternoon to win the Caldas da Rainha Women’s Open, the 23-year-old Italian’s second career WTA 125 title after Madrid last April.
Pigato, ranked 130, had a tougher road and fell out of favor with the prediction models along the way, notably in the quarter-finals against Switzerland’s Suzanne Bandecchi, who she beat 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 over Sweden’s Kaisa Rinaldo Persson 2-4,6,2.
She opened her week with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Portugal’s Sana Garakani and defeated Belgium’s No. 5 seed Jeline Vandrome 6-3, 7-5 in the semifinals. He was trailing in three sets, there was no one to decide him in the final.
For the 184th-ranked Knutson, it was her second straight defeat in the Caldas da Rainha final, a year after she lost to Polina Yatchenko in the 2025 title match. On her way back to the final, the Czech defeated Japan’s Aoi Ito 7-6 (4), 6-2, Holland’s Anouk Kovermans 6-3, 6-2, America’s Malaika Rapollo 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 and Slovakia’s Mia Pohankova 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.
