Siniakova Triumphs in Marathon Final
Katerina Siniakova claimed the Zavarovalnica Sava Portoroz title after winning a marathon encounter with reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the final.
The Czech pulled off an almighty comeback to overcome Rybakina 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-4 in three hours and six minutes in one of the finals of the year. The victory saw Siniakova lift her third career singles title and first since 2017 when she claimed trophies in Shenzhen and Bastad.
The title will go down as one of Siniakova’s finest after facing a brutal end to the week. Due to rain delays, the Czech was forced to play her quarterfinal and semifinal matches on the same day and spent just over four hours on court.
In comparison, Rybakina skipped through her semifinal in an hour and 21 minutes with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Ana Bogdan.
In the final, Siniakova was slow out of the gates as Rybakina brought the heat to leap to a 5-0 lead. However, the Czech was up to the fight and clawed her way back to take it to a tiebreaker.
In the following set, Siniakova was forced to fight back again, going down a break at 3-4 before sending it to a tiebreak again. This time, the Czech prevailed after racing out to a 6-3 lead.
In the decider, it was Rybakina who was forced to fight her way back into the contest after conceding a break. Trailing 2-4, the Wimbledon champion showed her class to square the ledger at 4-4, breaking the Siniakova serve to love in a dominant fashion.
However, Sinakova broke straight back and closed out the marathon encounter to claim one of the best wins in her singles career.
With the victory, Siniakova moved up to No. 82 in the world while she also climbed to No. 1 in the doubles rankings.
Fruhvirtova Announces Herself
Teenager Linda Fruhvirtova capped off an excellent week for Czech tennis, pulling off an inspiring comeback win over No. 3 seed Magda Linette to lift the trophy at the Chennai Open.
17-year-old Fruhvirtova claimed her first WTA title courtesy of a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory in two hours and 40 minutes.
With the victory, Fruhvirtova became the youngest singles champion on tour since Coco Gauff claimed her maiden title in Parma at the same age.
"I was feeling good in my game, and I knew that I could do a good result here, but it was much better than we all probably expected," Fruhvirtova said during her press conference.
"I'm pretty much in shock. It feels amazing, and I feel like it's a great start for me to keep building on this."
It looked for all money as though Linette would claim her third career singles title when she raced out to a 4-1 lead in the final set. However, Fruhvirtova let the shackles loose and played with nothing to lose, powering her way to the title by winning the next five games in a row.
"It was still just one break [in the third set] and [Linette] had a chance to go up for 5-1, and that would be really bad. So I think the fact that I went 2-4, it helped me, I still had a chance. ...I just started believing again and being confident, just fighting for every point."
With the victory, Fruhvirtova jumped 37 places to a career-high No. 130 in the world and announced herself as another potential star to come out of the Czech Republic.
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