Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to win the Portugal Open and claim her first trophy on clay.
The third-seeded champion, coached by Swiss great Martina Hingis, earned the fifth title of her career while leaving her opponent winless from five finals.
Pavlyuchenkova has been working with Hingis officially for just a few weeks and the game style and fighting determination of Switzerland’s five-time Grand Slam champion may be rubbing off on the 21-year-old right-hander.
“She was really happy with the win,” said Pavlyuchenkova of her mentor’s first win as a coach.
The winner was less than thrilled with a slow start to her own game.
“I was pissed with the way I started, but then I relaxed, and started waiting for my chances after she had pinned me to the baseline,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “I was trying to dictate and wait for the right moment. It worked at the end.”
In the men’s event, Stanislas Wawrinka ended the run of Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta as the second seed posted a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory to reach the final.
The Swiss was to face off against top seed David Ferrer of Spain who dispatched Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-4 in 70 minutes.
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Kristina Mladenovic of France defeated Darija Jurak of Croatia and Katalin Marosi of Hungary 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to win the women’s doubles title.
Additional reporting by staff writer
BMW OPEN
AFP, MUNICH, Germany
Evergreen Tommy Haas reached the Munich claycourt final on Saturday, 13 years after his first appearance ended in defeat.
Haas, 35, saw off Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-3 and was due to face defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber in yesterday’s final.
Haas reached the Munich final in 2000 when he lost in straight sets to Argentina’s Franco Squillari.
“It’s quite crazy [to be back in the final]. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet,” Haas said. “Thirteen years is a long time and it’s pretty impressive, I think, to achieve something like that. I’d like to go one step further and win the title here once, that’s my main goal right now.”
Despite losing the first set of his semi, Kohlschreiber dug deep to book his place in the final with a 6-7(4/7), 6-3, 7-6(7/5) win over compatriot Daniel Brands in just over two hours.
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