Coming into Sunday’s São Paulo Open final, Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah had plenty on the line:

  • Her first Hologic WTA Tour title
  • Her first career hard-court title as a professional at any level
  • A chance to become the first French teenager to win a WTA-level event since Oceane Dodin in 2016
  • An opportunity to become the first French woman to win a hard-court title since Caroline Garcia won the WTA Finals in 2022

The stakes were high — and Rakotomanga Rajaonah wasn’t about to let her moment slip away.

The 19-year-old entered the final as a sizable underdog, but leaves Brazil a champion, defeating Janice Tjen 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour and 22 minutes on Quadra Central Maria Esther Bueno.

As Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire” played in the background, Rakotomanga Rajaonah was nearly speechless.

“It was a really stressful week for me,” she said during the trophy presentation. “The first round was really difficult and yeah, I didn’t know I was going to win this 250 here in Brazil in the first edition. So yeah, I don’t know what to say.”

Calling the first round “difficult” may have been an understatement. She trailed 5-0 in the final set against Ana Sofia Sanchez before rallying to win in a third-set tiebreak. 

She didn’t drop another set the rest of the tournament. 

Here’s how she won it:

Clutch gene: Matches are often won in the biggest moments, and that was certainly the case here. Early on, Tjen applied pressure with nine break points in the opening set. 

But Rakotomanga Rajaonah showed her grit, saving chance after chance — including a break point in the final game of the first set with a brilliant lob that landed just inside the baseline.

Though her opportunities were fewer, she made them count, converting her first four break points to go up a set and two breaks. After Tjen fought off four break points to hold at 3-4 in the final set, the teen held her nerve, serving out the match and sealing it with another magical lob that clipped the baseline.

Stat pack: All in all, Rakotomanga Rajaonah converted 4 of 8 break points, while Tjen was just 2-for-10.

Despite hitting no aces and committing five double faults, the Frenchwoman outperformed Tjen on serve — landing 67% of her first serves and winning 75% of her second-serve points.

She also finished with more winners (17) and fewer unforced errors (23), despite playing a more aggressive brand of tennis throughout much of the match

Stock watch: After their run to the final, Rakotomanga Rajaonah and Tjen are set for major climbs in the PIF WTA Rankings when the new rankings are released Monday, with both reaching career-high marks. 

By winning the title, Rakotomanga Rajaonah leaps to No. 131 in the live rankings, having entered the week outside the top 200. She now ranks No. 8 among under-20 players and rises to No. 6 among French women.

Tjen moves to No. 103, putting her on the cusp of a top 100 breakthrough for the first time in her career.

Babos, Stefani take home doubles title

In Saturday’s doubles final, top-seeded Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani defeated No. 3 seeds Ingrid Martins and Laura Pigossi 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 to claim the title in São Paulo.

It’s their third title together — all coming in 2025.

For Babos, a four-time Grand Slam champion, it marks her 28th career WTA doubles title and third of the season. Stefani also collects her third title of the year, bringing her career total to 12.