Eighteen-year-old Spanish tennis player Charo Esquiva claimed her first professional title at the ITF W50 tournament in Yecla on Sunday, defeating compatriot Carmen Gallardo in straight sets. The victory at the Yecla Club de Tenis caps a breakout week that lifts the teenager hundreds of spots in the world rankings.
The Murcia clay saw an entirely unexpected final pair battle for the trophy as the IV Open Internacional Femenino Ciudad de Yecla drew to a close on September 27, 2026. Neither Esquiva nor Gallardo had been seeded among the tournament’s top eight contenders when play began.
Charo Esquiva Defeats Carmen Gallardo for the Yecla Title
Playing with a wild card granted by the Real Federación Española de Tenis, Esquiva controlled the championship match from the baseline. After receiving the invitation from the RFET, the 18-year-old tennis player from Alicante eliminated the top seed Eva Vedder in her debut and closed a brilliant championship by overcoming Carmen Gallardo in the decisive duel with a double 6-3 and 6-2. The young player from Bigastro broke early in the opening set to establish a 3-1 lead. Though Gallardo answered with a break of her own, she failed to hold serve, allowing Esquiva to capture the first set 6-3.
The second set followed a similar trajectory as the newly crowned champion asserted her dominance. Esquiva raced to a 3-0 advantage after breaking serve twice consecutively. Gallardo attempted a recovery from the deficit, but struggles on her own delivery permitted Esquiva to seize absolute control and close out the second set 6-2.
A Giant-Killing Run Through the Draw at the Yecla Club de Tenis
Esquiva established her intentions during the opening round by facing top-seeded Dutch player Eva Vedder, who ranked around the top 200 globally. Despite Vedder comfortably taking the initial set, the athlete from Alicante knew how to react to turn the score around and take the victory with partials of 2-6, 6-2 and 6-4. She then eliminated Juliana Giaccio in straight sets (7-5 and 6-2) before outlasting France’s Tiphanie Lemaitre in a three-set quarterfinal battle (2-6, 7-6 and 6-0).
Gallardo forged an equally grueling path to the final. Having had to play the qualifying round, the Madrid tennis player Carmen Gallardo advanced steadily from the qualy to reach the match for the title, a milestone she sealed after a triumphant semifinal match against seed Ángela Fita by 6-2 and 7-5. Both finalist players earned their pass to the decisive match after defeating Ukrainian Kateryna Lazarenko by 6-1 and 6-3 and Valencian Ángela Fita by 6-2 and 7-5 in the penultimate round, respectively. The participation in the quarterfinals concluded for the Barcelona tennis player Georgina García-Pérez, who later would conquer the doubles modality alongside Serbian competitor Elena Milovanovic by prevailing over the duo integrated by the American player.
Rankings Jump and Historic Milestone for the 18-Year-Old Spaniard
The IV Open Internacional Femenino Ciudad de Yecla
ITF W50 distributed 40,000 dollars in prizes. Supported by the sponsorship of TM Grupo Inmobiliario, the former European Junior runner-up from last season experiences a notable progression in the international classification, climbing 225 spots to wake up this Monday at step 544 in what constitutes her debut year in professionalism, improving dramatically from her position at the start of the year, when she began in position 1,125.
National player Charo Esquiva Bañuls, 18 years old and a former world number one in the junior category, raised her first crown on the professional circuit after accepting an invitation (wild card) to compete in the W50 event in Yecla, organized at the facilities of the Yecla Club de Tenis in Murcia lands. After prevailing over Carmen Gallardo with partials of 6-3 and 6-2, the athlete from Alicante established herself as the youngest Spanish racket to claim a trophy within the ITF world circuit with a status higher than W35 since September of the year 2000, the date on which Anabel Medina Garrigues —who would come to occupy position 16 of the global scale— was proclaimed champion of the tournament endowed with 50,000 dollars held in the French town of Denain at 18 years and 41 days of age. Prior to her professional breakthrough in Murcia, Esquiva reached the semifinals at the W15 de Logroño and was a semifinalist also in the W50 de Horb, in Germany.