Lukas Rosol got a few big breaks on his way to the Winston-Salem Open final, and a few more in winning his first ATP Tour title of the year.
The Czech rallied from a set down on Saturday to beat Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 in the championship match at the Wake Forest Tennis Center.
“I’m tired, but I’m pretty happy for the result,” said Rosol, who is to see his ATP world ranking rise to a career-best No. 27 entering next week’s US Open. “I didn’t start good, but I finished strong. “Jerzy has a big game with some big shots, but I just focused on my game when I was serving. On his serve, I really had no chances ... until the end of the match when he gave me a chance.”
Janowicz had an opportunity to win the match in the 10th game of the third set. Ahead 5-4, he made it to 40-15, but Rosol twice saved match points on his serve, then battled through three game points of his own before winning to even the match at five-all.
“It happens,” said Janowicz, who was playing in his second career ATP final and first in two years. “I didn’t do anything stupid, he just played a lot better. I was a little bit unlucky here.”
That game swung the match’s momentum Rosol’s way, and he capitalized on the shift. Rosol quickly broke Janowicz’s serve to take a 6-5 advantage, and pulled ahead 40-15 in the final game before closing it out with his 12th ace of the match for his second career ATP Tour title.
“Things changed,” said Rosol, whose first title came last year in Bucharest. “If you have a chance [to win] and don’t do it, you’re mentally down. You start thinking it’s already over, and he wasn’t totally together with his legs and head.”
“If he makes the big shots, he’s the champion. But he was probably thinking about that. In that moment, all I wanted to do was play solid. I didn’t have to go for a big shot,” Rosol added.
Fatigue might have played a role, as well. Janowicz was playing his sixth match in as many days and fourth to go three sets, while Rosol had won five matches, but two were injury defaults — against Ryan Harrison of the US in the second round, and over top-seeded and two-time champ John Isner in the quarter-finals.
“He really only played three matches,” Janowicz said. “That’s a huge difference. But it happens. Lukas got a couple of walkovers. It happens. This is not my first final, and hopefully not my last final. I played some good tennis.”
CONNECTICUT OPEN
AP, NEW HAVEN, Connecticut
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova appears ready to make a run at her second Grand Slam title this summer.
The No. 4 ranked Czech star dominated Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday to win her second title in New Haven in the past three years.
“That’s something what I need probably, have some matches before [the US Open],” she said. “I know last two years I had great run here, but I didn’t have great results in US Open. Still, I mean, I hopefully can make it little bit better.”
The No. 4 player in the world also won here in 2012 before losing in last year’s final to Simona Halep. She did not drop a set in New Haven as she prepared for next week’s US Open.
Kvitova broke Rybarikova’s serve in the sixth game and final game of each set, running her opponent from one side of the court to the other. She sent a backhand across court on the final point and Rybarikova did not attempt to chase it down.
Rybarikova said she injured her right thigh sliding to get to a ball on Friday in her semi-final win over Camila Giorgi of Italy and was not sure she would be able to play on Saturday.
She grabbed the back of her leg several times while sprinting after Kvitova’s shots, but never called for a trainer.
“In the beginning, it was OK, but then it started to be worse and worse,” she said. “It’s tough to play like this against such a great player. But I don’t want to say I lost because of that.”
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