Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark celebrates with the trophy after her victory against Roberta Vinci of Italy in Istanbul yesterday.
Having lost two of their three previous meetings, Caroline Wozniacki struck back against Roberta Vinci yesterday night to capture the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup title.
In a dream final at the International-level tournament, the No.1-seeded Wozniacki took on the No.2-seeded Vinci. But they got there in very different ways. Though she cooled off a pair of WTA Rising Stars - Belinda Bencic and Kristina Mladenovic - in straight sets, Wozniacki was pushed to three sets two rounds in a row, against Karin Knapp in the second round and Karolina Pliskova in the quarters. Meanwhile, on the other half of the draw, Vinci didn’t come close to losing a set all tournament.
But it was the battle-ready Wozniacki who was better ready for battle in crunch time, completely dominating Vinci in 67 minutes in the final, 6-1, 6-1. Her serve was a stronghold - she fought off all six of the break points she faced and held all seven of her sevice games. The Dane was dangerous on the return too, breaking five times in the match, including in Vinci’s last three service games.
“I tried to play aggressively like always but made a lot of mistakes,” Vinci said. “It’s tough to play like that against Caroline because she puts everything back in the court, and it was tough for me to stay in the rallies today. But I’m happy with my week and Caroline just played much better than me.”
Wozniacki took home her first WTA title of the year and the 22nd of her illustrious career.
The former No.1 has now won a WTA title every year for the last seven years, winning her first three in 2008, three more in 2009, six in 2010, six in 2011, two in 2012, one in 2013 and now one in 2014.
“I’m happy to have won my 22nd WTA title - it’s a great feeling!” Wozniacki said. “I’m happy how the final went today. I served well and pushed her around the court, and I really dictated the match.
“I’ve had a good week and am feeling good on hardcourts, which is great moving forward.”
It has been a great few weeks for Vinci, too, though. Having gone 7-17 on the tour from the start of the year through Wimbledon, and dropping from No.14 to No.24 in that time, the Italian has revived her season with an 8-2 record and back-to-back finals in the two weeks since leaving the All-England Club, finishing runner-up at Bucharest last week (to WTA Rising Star Simona Halep) and now Istanbul.
The doubles final took place earlier in the day and saw Misaki Doi and Elina Svitolina beat Oksana Kalashnikova and Paula Kania, 6-4, 6-0. Both Doi and Svitolina won the first WTA doubles title of their career in Istanbul - for Doi it was even more special, as it was her first WTA title of any kind.
Bastad, Sweden: Mona Barthel captured the third WTA title of her career yesterday, edging Chanelle Scheepers in a tight two-setter to bring home the Collector Swedish Open crown.
The tournament was somewhat of a “last woman standing” kind of thing - seven of the Top 8 seeds were bounced in the first round, and after No 6 seed Annika Beck was upset in the second round, it was the first WTA draw where no seeds made the quarter-finals since Hobart in January 2009.
But it was Barthel who emerged victorious from all of the chaos, surviving a few particularly tough ones en route to the final - three-setters against Canadian qualifier Gabriela Dabrowski in the second round and Spain’s Sílvia Soler-Espinosa in the semi-finals, coming from 4-2 down in the third in the latter - and against fellow unseeded player Scheepers in the final she put her rally cap on again, coming back from 5-3 down in the second set to close out the South African No 1 in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(3).
Barthel’s serve was her go-to in the final - she dropped serve once early in the second set, but overall she held nine of her 10 service games, only being pushed to deuce in three of the other ones.
“It’s been an amazing week for me. I cannot believe I won the title!” Barthel beamed afterwards.
“It was like a perfect week for me. I was fighting a lot - in some matches I was behind, and I was just fighting for every point. I’m just happy everything worked out. I love this tournament so much.
“I can’t wait to defend my title.”
