Camila Giorgi of Italy won her first WTA Singles title in almost three years on Sunday after defeating the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-1 in the final of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz.
The Italian, who started the tournament as the fifth seed, needed only an hour to overcome her Russian adversary. Throughout the course of the game, Giorgi maintained an average first service win rate of 88% and won a total of four break points to see herself through to the victory.
That win also marked the first major victory for the Italian on the hard surface. Giorgi’s last singles title came in 2015 June, when she won the 2015 Rosmalen Grass Court Championships after defeating Belinda Bencic in the final.
In 2014, she made it to the final of Linz Open but only to lose to Karolina Pliskova in the final. Interestingly enough, she was the also the finalist of Katowice Open, all the way from 2014 to 2016 but never managed to win the tournament.
Bellissima! What a stunning trophy shoot with our champion #camilagiorgi! (pics: GEPA) #wtalinz #upperaustrialadieslinz #camilamoments @WTA pic.twitter.com/0MFqQOlvnZ
— WTA Linz (@WTALinz) October 14, 2018
Before coming to Linz, the 26-year-old had a rather eventful season with a win-loss record of 33-20. Most recently, she reached the semifinals of WTA Tokyo, where she lost Naomi Osaka. She was also the quarterfinalist at this year’s Wimbledon where she succumbed to Serena Williams – she also became the first Italian to make it to the final eight at the SW19 since 2009.
The 2018 edition of Linz Open boasted of several big players like Kiki Bertens, Julia Goerges, and Barbora Strycova – all of whom lost in the early rounds with the sole exception of Strycova, who lost in the quarterfinals.
As for Alexandrova, she started her campaign at Linz as a qualifier. She has spent most of her season alternating between the WTA and ITF circuits.
She had a pretty similar run in ITF Budapest as well, where she lost to Viktoria Kuzmova in the final. At Linz, she defeated the likes of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Andrea Petkovic, and Johanna Larsson to reach her first final on the WTA Tour.
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