Weekend winners: Kanepi victorious in Estoril, Errani in Budapest

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Wilson Blade 9

The blue Madrid Open was already heating up while the week’s touraments were coming to a close – Kaia Kanepi saved two match points in the Estoril Open final before defeating Carla Suarez Navarro 3-6 7-6(6) 6-4, and Sara Errani beat Elena Vesnina 7-5 6-4 for the Budapest crown.

After the Australian part of the season, during which Kanepi won the Brisbane International, the Estonian was on the sidelines with a right shoulder injury for a month and a half and only now did she get back into the rhythm in Estoril, where as the sixth seed, she took out seed No.4 Petra Cetkovska and top seed Roberta Vinci en route to the final with unseeded Suarez Navarro, who was close to winning her first WTA title when leading 6-3 5-3 and then having two match points in the tiebreak. Even in the third set Suarez Navarro had a lead, 4-2, but Kanepi worked her way back again to win the most intriguing final of her life.

In Budapest, Sara Errani earned her third straight claycourt title and 15th consecutive match win by beating Elena Vesnina, who considerably assisted Errani’s cruise through the tournament by eliminating seeds No.2, No.6 and No.5, namely, Ksenia Pervak, Petra Martic and Marina Erakovic. In the title match, Vesnina was up 5-3 in the first set, but Errani then won seven games in a row and not long after the match. (via WTA Tour, photos: Neal Trousdale)

1 COMMENT

  1. Another great post. Navarro is going to find it hard to fall asleep tonight. With 2 match points, even if you won 50% of them, you should have the championship in hand. Good job to Kanepi who stayed calm in the face of defeat – wish I could do that. 🙂

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