Top-seeded Petra Kvitova won the Generali Ladies with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Dominika Cibulkova for the Czech player’s first title since winning Wimbledon in June.
The fourth-ranked Kvitova has struggled since winning her first major at the All England Club, but found her form on Sunday to deny the seventh-seeded Slovak a maiden women’s title.
Kvitova broke Cibulkova’s serve on six occasions to win her fifth title of the season — and sixth overall — in just under 90 minutes.
“This was a great preparation for [the WTA Championships in] Istanbul,” said Kvitova, who had made a last-minute decision to play in Linz.
Only top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki’s six wins this season tops Kvitova, who improved to 4-0 against Cibulkova.
“Dominika has played really [well] this week and many games were close today,” Kvitova said. “I am not thinking about my ranking. I am just working on my tennis to get better and better.”
Kvitova broke Cibulkova in the opening game and though she found it hard to convert her break opportunities after that, she dominated her own service games and did not face a break point until 4-3.
However, she seemed to lose concentration after her serve was ruled to have touched the top of the net at 40-30. Cibulkova took advantage to break back and level at 4-4, but the Slovak player could not hold her own serve and was broken to trail.
Kvitova eased through the second set to become the first Czech winner since Jana Novotna in 1998, who also won Wimbledon that same year.
Cibulkova was appearing in her first final since Montreal in 2008 and dropped to 0-3 with silverware on the line.
“It was a great week for me. It feels good that I finally got into a final again,” said Cibulkova, who along with 16th-ranked Peng Shuai remains the only player in the current top 30 without a WTA title.
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