SEOUL, South Korea — Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil stormed back to beat top-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the Korea tennis Open final to win her first WTA tour title of the season in Seoul.
It is the fourth title of the No. 3 seed´s career and caps a strong run of form by the Brazilian player who has now won 12 of her last 14 matches, a stretch that includes advancing to the final in Cleveland and the quarterfinals of the US Open.
The victory also improved Haddad Maia´s career record against Kasatkina to 3-1.
“I’m happy with my job,” Haddad Maia said after her victory.
“I think the beginning of the match I was missing a lot, and Daria was playing better. [But] I knew that I was playing well during the week, I knew that tennis changes everything very fast, so I was competing better at the end of the second set, and then my tennis appeared and I finished in the way that I wanted.”
“I knew that I was working very hard during the last weeks, last months,” Haddad Maia said according to wtatenni.
“I feel stronger; I feel that I’m very competitive now. I’m in a good moment, ready for the next week. I feel that I’m doing very good things, working hard, and yeah, let’s see what the end of the season brings to me.”
Haddad Maia captured the title in Seoul seven years after making the final in her tournament debut in 2017. She is now a career 8-1 at the tournament. Her win also improved her head-to-head record against Kasatkina to 3-1.
The Russian player started strongly and took just 26 minutes to secure the first set and appeared to be on track for a quick victory after breaking Haddad Maia to take a 2-0 lead in the second. But Haddad Maia stormed back to take the set.
Haddad Maia then broke Kasatkina in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and cruised to victory in an hour and 50 minutes.
Kasatkina needed just 26 minutes to pocket a dominant first set. Kasatkina came into the final trailing the head-to-head 1-2 against Haddad Maia, but the World No.13 wove her web of intelligent baseline tennis to keep the Brazilian on her heels.
Kasatkina served in 89 percent of her first serves in the first set and lost just two points on her serve. She also went a perfect 2 for 2 on her break-point chances. The trend continued early in the second set.
Kasatkina broke early to lead 2-0 before Haddad Maia snapped her seven-game losing streak to get on the board.
Surging in form, Haddad Maia painted the sideline with a forehand winner to earn her first break of the match at 3-3. The turning point came in the ninth game.
After feeling hard done by a line call and receiving a time violation, Haddad Maia gamely saved a break point with a forehand flurry and held to lead 5-4.
She then broke Kasatkina by a Hawk-Eye-confirmed millimeter to send the match to a deciding set after just 73 minutes of play.
Maia struck first in the third set to lead 3-1 and wiped out a triple-break-point chance for Kasatkina to win five points in a row and hold to 4-1.
After snuffing out Kasatkina’s chance to get back into the match, Haddad Maia closed out her victory after 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Earlier, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Liudmila Samsonova eased to the doubles title with a 6-1, 6-0 win over No.3 seeds Miyu Kato and Zhang Shuai.
No.102 Rebecca Sramkova secured her first Hologic WTA Tour title by defeating No.99 Laura Siegemund 6-4, 6-4 in the final at the Thailand Open.
Sramkova, 27, captured her breakthrough title by defeating Mananchaya Sawangkaew, Magda Linette, Jana Fett, Tamara Zidansek and Siegemund.
The Slovakian is in the midst of a career surge, having made her first WTA final last week in Monastir, where she finished runner-up to Sonay Kartal.
She has now won nine of her last 10 matches. She is the 10th first-time WTA champion this season.
“I would like to dedicate this trophy to my grandpa, who is healing from cancer,” Sramkova said on court. “I would like to give it to him.”
With the win, Sramkova will surge inside the Top 70 on the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time in her career.
Entering this week, her career-best ranking came in May at No.89. She had not been ranked higher than No.111 before this year, which she hit in 2017.
In their first career meeting, Sramkova overpowered the veteran German in the first set. She struck 10 winners to Siegemund’s six, and was able to save two of three break points to maintain her early lead.
Siegemund earned a spot in her first WTA final of the year with wins over Alycia Parks, Wang Xiyu, Rebeka Masarova and Arianne Hartono.
Her second-round win over Wang in the second round was the fourth-longest match of the Open Era. She was bidding to win her third WTA title and first on a hard court.
