Samantha Stosur rallied to defeat third seed Karin Knapp of Italy 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in the final of the Gastein Ladies on Sunday.
It was the second title of the season and the eighth overall for the Australian world No. 23, who was seeded second. Stosur also won in Strasbourg in May.
The former world No. 4 dropped one set in her opening match against Anastija Sevastova of Latvia, but after getting used to the high altitude in the Austrian Alps, she recorded three comfortable straight-sets wins, including in the semi-final against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.
Photo: AP
Knapp won four of the final’s first five games to take control of the opening set. She failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set, before Stosur dominated the final set.
The final was the second three-set match which the world No. 43 had played on Sunday after she outlasted top seed Sara Errani 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-5 in a semi-final moved from Saturday because of rain. Both matches combined lasted for 5 hours, 6 minutes.
On Friday, Knapp also played her second-round and quarter-final matches on the same day.
Knapp was also seeking her second title of the season. Arriving in Bad Gastein, she had failed to win a match since taking the title in Nuremberg two months ago.
Knapp had to hold off three match points against Tamira Paszek of Austria in the first round.
In her semi-final against Errani, Knapp rallied from 3-0 down to take the opening set in a tiebreaker.
Errani, who is ranked 19th, broke three times to take the second set and fought back from 5-2 down in the final set, before Knapp won the final two games.
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