Leyre Romero Gormaz has won the Cali Open. In the final of the Colombian WTA 125, the Spaniard beat Canada's Bianca Vanessa Andreescu 7-6(4) 6-3 and lifted the trophy on clay.
The final was played on Saturday 7 November and followed a clear script: Romero Gormaz took the first set on a tie-break, then closed out the second 6-3. It was also the first meeting between the two: the head-to-head, which did not exist before this match, now stands at 1-0.
The title is worth 160 points, while the final brought Andreescu 97. These are the points on the tournament's scale: 160 for the title, 97 for the final, 59 for the semifinals, 37 for the quarterfinals, 17 for the round of 16 and 1 for the first round.
For Romero Gormaz, who turned 24 in April, the win changes the rankings picture. In the live WTA list she is No. 107 with 745 points, and the site shows 160 points gained since the start of the tournament. Compared with 9 September she has climbed 14 places. Just ahead is Solana Sierra, No. 106 with 749 points, the very player she beat in the round of 16. Just behind is Kristina Liutova, No. 108 with 733.
Andreescu lost, but her recent run deserves applause. The Canadian is No. 102 live with 794 points, and since September she has gained a full 74 places. Fiona Ferro (No. 101, a single point ahead) sits above her, Francesca Jones (No. 103) below. The Cali final earned her 97 points.
Romero Gormaz's path was anything but a stroll. In the first round she beat Polona Hercog 6-0 6-1, then Solana Sierra 6-4 6-1 in the round of 16. Then came two deciding-set tests: in the quarterfinals she came back against Carole Monnet 4-6 7-5 6-4, and in the semifinals against Julia Riera 3-6 7-5 6-4. Both times she lost the first set and turned the match around.
Andreescu, by contrast, reached the final without dropping a set. She beat Tamara Zidansek 6-2 6-3 in the first round, Jazmin Ortenzi 6-2 6-3 in the round of 16, Luisina Giovannini 6-1 6-3 in the quarterfinals and Alice Tubello 6-0 6-4 in the semifinals. Facing such a tidy opponent, Romero Gormaz had to find the right shot in the first-set tie-break, and she did.
The week in Colombia caps a clay-court WTA 125 season of ups and downs for the Spaniard. In Antalya and Tolentino she went out in the round of 16 (17 points in each event), in Valencia in the first round. In Lisbon, at the Belem Open, she reached the final and lost to Clara Burel 6-4 6-3, taking home 97 points. In Curitiba she lost in the quarterfinals to Julia Grabher 1-6 6-4 7-5.
Her recent matches explain the moment: in her last 10 she has won 8 and lost 2. Across the last 26 matches tracked by the site, the record is 15 wins and 11 losses, a balance of +4. Before this title, in 2025 at tour level, she had 2 wins and 3 losses, with no titles.
Andreescu also arrived in Cali in great form. In her last 10 matches she has won 9 and lost one. Shortly before Cali came the title in Queretaro, where she beat Tatjana Maria 6-1 2-6 6-3 in the final and earned another 160 points. Earlier in 2026 she had also won in Rovereto, where she beat Dominika Salkova 7-6(2) 6-2 in the final.
The wins in Rovereto and Queretaro, plus the Cali final, tell the story of a comeback year for the Canadian. Her overall record at tour level from 2021 to 2025 is 52 wins and 41 losses, 56 per cent. Her 2025 season ended at 7-8. This year she has won two WTA 125 events and played a third one to the last match.
The tournament had its own numbers. The draw featured 27 players from 14 nations, and the most represented country was Argentina with 5 players, who reached the semifinals through Riera. France had 4 and sent Tubello to the semifinals, while Spain, with 3 players, won the title. Canada, with a single representative, reached the final.
Across 26 matches there were 4 tie-breaks and 8 matches that went to a deciding set. Four sets ended 6-0 and there were no retirements. The longest match by games was Leolia Jeanjean-Lucia Bronzetti, won by the Frenchwoman 6-7(2) 6-4 6-3 in 32 games.
The Cali Open has a young roll of honour. Last year Sinja Kraus won, beating Panna Udvardy 6-2 6-0 in the final: a far more lopsided score than this year's. Those 160 points now drop off Kraus's ranking and are replaced by those of the new champion.
There are other interesting names in the draw: Jazmin Ortenzi, a semifinalist in 2025, went out this year in the round of 16 against Andreescu. Argentina's Luisina Giovannini fell in the quarterfinals to the Canadian. The quarterfinals also featured Monnet, Riera, Zarazua and Jeanjean, all players who kept the tournament open to the end.
What happens now? For Romero Gormaz, the next step is to consolidate her position around No. 107: the gaps to her neighbours are small, 4 points to Sierra above and 12 to Liutova below, so every tournament can shift the rankings a lot. For Andreescu the job is the same: hold No. 102 and try to pull away from Ferro and the players ahead of her.
Romero Gormaz came back twice during the week and, in the biggest match, kept her nerve in the first-set tie-break. It is the picture of a title built match by match.
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