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Aleksandra Wozniak boosts Canadian tennis with rare win

Qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak became the first Canadian to win a WTA Tour singles title in 20 years, taking advantage of an injury to Marion Bartoli to win the Bank of the West Classic 7-5, 6-3 on Sunday.

Wozniak, 20, needed to win eight matches — including three qualifiers — in nine days to become the first Canadian since Jill Hetherington at Wellington in 1988 to win a women’s singles title.

Wozniak won her semi-final when top-seeded Serena Williams pulled out with a knee injury in the second set. Then Bartoli was slowed in the final by a sore left hip that left her limping badly late in the match.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Wozniak said. “I guess I make them run too much or something. Yesterday [Serena] pulled out and today she got hurt, Marion. I don’t know. I just keep playing aggressive and doing what I needed to do to win.”

“It’s great. I think I made history at home,” Wozniak said. “Everybody was watching the match. I’m just proud of being Canadian.”

Wozniak also became just the third qualifier to win a tournament this year and the first to do it in a Tier II tournament — one with more than US$600,000 in prize money. She lost her only previous final in a much smaller tournament in Morocco last year.

The match was tight for most of the first set, before Wozniak took charge with Bartoli serving for the set at 5-4. She won 12 of the final 14 points to take it, using her powerful backhand to break Bartoli’s serve twice.

Then in the opening game of the second set Bartoli began grabbing at her left hip, which got worse as the match progressed. After losing the first game, Bartoli asked the referee to get the trainer on call and she took a medical timeout trailing 2-1.

Bartoli returned to the court limping noticeably. She gamely played on but was unable to threaten Wozniak and lost the match when a backhand hit the net cord and fell back to her side.

Wozniak gave a subdued fist pump and ran to the net to congratulate her opponent.



■GASTEIN LADIES

AP, BAD GASTEIN, Austria

Fourth-seeded Pauline Parmentier won the Gastein Ladies by beating Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4 in Sunday’s final.

It was the Frenchwoman’s second WTA Tour title.

“It was a wonderful week for me,” the 53rd-ranked Parmentier said. “I am glad that I played well consistently. The rain made it hard as we had to play many matches in just a few days.”

Hradecka, a 237th-ranked qualifier, won 11 titles on the ITF women’s circuit but had previously never passed the second round of a WTA Tour event.
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