Mother of two Tatjana Maria beats Amanda Anisimova to win Queen’s title

German qualifier Tatjana Maria became the first woman to win a title at Queen’s since 1973 after beating eighth seed Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-4 at the Andy Murray Arena.

The mother-of-two claimed the biggest title of her career to cap off the first women’s tournament – boasting a £1 million prize pot – held at the west London venue in 52 years.

It was a family affair for Maria, whose daughters, 11-year-old Charlotte and four-year-old Cecilia joined her husband and coach Charles-Édouard Maria in the front row to watch the 37-year-old dispatch American Anisimova in one hour and 23 minutes.

“A dream come true. [When] I came here, I was never thinking I could hold the trophy at the end. When we arrived my little girl said ‘wow that’s a nice trophy, so big’ and I said ‘OK let’s go for it I will try to win it’,” Maria said.

“In the end I’ve won it, it’s incredible. So happy. Everything is possible if you believe in it. You go your way, doesn’t matter which it is but you have to keep going. I want to show this to my kids and hopefully they are proud. It’s amazing.”

Maria, who knocked out top-20 players Karolina Muchova, Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys en route to the final, is the oldest WTA singles tour winner since 2020, when Serena Williams – who also returned to tennis after having children – won in Auckland, aged 38.

She replaces Olga Morozova, who once coached a young Murray, as the most recent female winner at Queen’s, and marked the venue’s new chapter by scribbling “queen of Queen’s” on the camera.

Maria entered this WTA 500 tournament at 86th in the rankings, but the triumph will catapult her to No 43 in Monday’s update, when Emma Raducanu will also officially take over from Katie Boulter as British No 1.

Maria, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2022, has now won four WTA titles, having triumphed on grass at Mallorca in 2018 and twice on clay in Bogotá, in 2022 and 2023.