The title defender Brenda Fruhvirtova from the Czech Republic fulfilled everyone’s expectations and took home the title once more.
There was a high level on today’s final between Brenda and Russian Daria Shadchneva. The defending champion got off to a great start and raced to a 4-1 lead. Up to this point, it looked like one way traffic for Brenda. But Daria had other plans and began to find a rhythm and fight back.
The exchanges suddenly lasted longer, and the Russian started hitting with better length, which disturbed the Czech. Brenda’s lead of 4-1 suddenly became 4-4. After just over an hour, the match went into a tiebreak, which ended 7-3 to Brenda.
The second set reminded us of the first, a high level of play, few mistakes, and many exciting winners. The players were neck to neck to 3-3, but then Brenda Fruhvirtova stepped up a gear and closed the match, 7-6, 6-3.
– What a match the spectators got to watch today, commented Tournament Director Joe Beaton. It is incredibly inspiring to see such young players play tennis at this standard. They force each other to cover all areas of the court, yet still manage to maintain the speed and precision on the ball. These two will soon be playing at a professional level, concludes Joe Beaton.