Stuttgart [Germany], April 23 : World No.1 Iga Swiatek successfully defended her Stuttgart Open title on Sunday by defeating World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-4 in a hard-hitting championship match.
The top two players in the WTA Tour rankings blasted the ball for one hour and 50 minutes before Swiatek captured her 13th career singles title on the indoor clay of Stuttgart.
Power striking was evident from both players throughout the encounter on Sunday. Swiatek, on the other hand, exploited her excellent defence to extend the match's eighth game, and she was rewarded with the sole break of the first set after crushing a forehand return winner down the line.
Swiatek went behind 0-30 in her next two service games after breaking in the first game of the second set. But the top seed drew herself out of danger to eke out additional close games, eventually winning the match with a love service hold.
Swiatek erased the lone break point she faced in the match, and she won 14 of Sabalenka's 22 second-service points on the day.
"I wanted to win really, really hard, but I knew that I can't really focus on that and just I have to keep doing my job as I did on previous matches," Swiatek said afterwards. "I'm pretty happy that I could kind of have good mentality and just focus on what I want to do tennis-wise," WTA.com quoted Swiatek as saying after the match.
At the women's doubles final, the No.2 seeds and last year's champions Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs beat No.3 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Giuliana Olmos 6-4, 6-1 to defend their title on Sunday's final.
Krawczyk and Schuurs picked up their second team title by dispatching Melichar-Martinez and Olmos in 64 minutes.
"In general, I think we play aggressive, we just like the [Stuttgart] courts. Before winning the title last year, I think I never won a match in Stuttgart! So I think Desirae's playing very well, very aggressive, and then I can do my job at the net," Schuurs said.
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