Pareja, 16, and Cyprus’s Serban score milestone wins in Bogota

Qualifiers Julieta Pareja and Raluka Serban both scored milestone wins in the first round of the Copa Colsanitas Zurich on Tuesday.

American Pareja, 16, became the first player born in 2009 to compete in a WTA main draw and to win a match at this level after defeating Colombian wild card and fellow 16-year-old Maria Jose Sanchez Uribe 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour and 16 minutes. Both players were making their WTA main-draw debut. It was the first WTA main-draw match between two players aged under 17 since the first round of Prague 2009, when 15-year-old wild card Zarina Diyas defeated 16-year-old qualifier Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-1.

Bogota: Draws | Scores | Order of play

With a current position of No. 550, Pareja is also the leading 2009-born player in the PIF WTA Rankings (ahead of Hannah Klugman at No. 609 and Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi at No. 653). Last year, she upset Kayla Day and Lucrezia Stefanini to reach the final qualifying round of the US Open as a wild card, and won her first ITF title at the Rancho Santa Fe W15.

This week, Pareja defeated Carol Zhao and Eva Vedder, both in straight sets, to qualify for Bogota. She will next face lucky loser Patricia Maria Tig, who upset home hope and No. 4 seed Emiliana Arango 6-3, 6-3. If Pareja defeats Tig, she will be the youngest WTA quarterfinalist since a 15-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova made the last eight of Charleston (250) in 2021.

Earlier, No. 204-ranked Serban became the first player from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to win a tour-level match after overcoming Nuria Parrizas Diaz 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in 2 hours and 5 minutes. The 27-year-old was competing in her third WTA main draw, having previously fallen in the first round of Warsaw 2022 (to Gabriela Lee) and Bogota 2023 (to Kamilla Rakhimova). Serban’s best Grand Slam performance to date came at Roland Garros last year, where she made the final round of qualifying.

Serban, who reached her career high of No. 152 in 2023, is the only Cypriot player to have been ranked inside the Top 300, and one of only two to currently hold a WTA ranking (alongside Daria Frayman at No. 473). She will next face No. 1 seed Marie Bouzkova, who escaped qualifier Aleksandra Krunic 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 from a break down in the third set.

Pareja and Serban weren’t the only players notching milestones their Bogota openers. No. 194-ranked Hanna Chang was victorious on her WTA main-draw debut, wining an all-American first round over Varvara Lepchenko 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Defending champion and No. 2 seed Camila Osorio advanced 6-0, 6-1 over wild card and Colombian compatriot Mariana Isabel Higuita Barraza. Another two-time Bogota winner, No. 6 seed Tatjana Maria, won the second-longest match of 2025 so far over Chloe Paquet 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4, battling through in 3 hours and 25 minutes.

Iva Jovic, 17, made it two American teenagers in the second round after upsetting No. 3 seed Alycia Parks 6-1, 6-4. Jovic is yet to lose a first-round match at tour level in four main draws so far. She will next face Julia Riera, who advanced when Francesca Jones was forced to retire due to general cramps trailing 6-2, 5-7, 5-3.