WATCH: Parks produces Shot of the Year contender with superb tweener lob winner

Wednesday, 01 February 2023 at 22:30

Updated at Friday, 24 November 2023 at 21:16

bySebastian Dahlman

Alycia Parks produced a comeback win over Petra Martic at the indoor WTA 250 event in Lyon, and she did it in style.

The 22-year-old American is one of the most promising talents currently on the women's Tour. She shined indoors last year, finishing up the year with back-to-back titles in Angers, France, and Andorra, pushing herself into the Top 100 in the WTA Rankings.

It's only going up from there as Parks is proving to be a very dangerous player already, with plenty of room to improve. At the 2023 Lyon Open, she started with a win over Julia Grabher, before taking on Croatia's Petra Martic.

The fourth-seeded Croatian had a great start into the match, winning the opening set 6-2, but she couldn't close out the match in the second set, as Parks won it in a tie-break, before turning around the match completely, winning it 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-2.

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And during the match, she wasn't showcasing only her solid serve and powerful forehand, but also trick shots that she has in her toolkit. The American hit an early shot-of-the-year contender with a superb tweener lob winner.

It was at the start of the second set, after Parks lost the opener, and she was looking to go into a 3-2 lead, with 40-0 lead on her serve with score even at 2-2 in the second set.

After Martic lobbed the American, she ran back to the baseline, and from there, she hit the ball between her legs and over the Croatian, who approached the net, waiting for an easy volley to finish off the rally.

But that didn't happen as Martic was unable to do anything against it, and it even impressed her fellow colleagues such as former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu reacted on social media with a simple: "Daaaaaaaamnn."