Wickmayer lands Linz title

Third seed Yanina Wickmayer won the Generali Ladies tournament in Linz after seeing off unseeded Czech Petra Kvitova in the final.

Kvitova’s serve let her down on the big occasion as, despite firing down five aces, she won only 53% of service points and allowed Wickmayer to break four times in nine attempts on her way to a 6-3 6-4 victory.

It was the Belgian’s third successive win over Kvitova, who showed the after-effects of a hard-fought last-four upset of second seed Agnieszka Radwanska, which she took on her seventh match point.

Wickmayer and Kvitova, both 19, also clashed earlier this year at both the US Open and Estoril – where Wickmayer also won the title. Kvitova had won their first meeting, at Monzon in 2008.

Having produced her best ever result in upsetting top seed Flavia Pennetta to reach the final, Wickmayer broke twice to take the first set today.

Kvitova improved in the second set and took her only break point, but her inability to make consistent inroads on the Wickmayer serve meant the wild-card entry was again able to secure victory in one hour and 26 minutes.

It was the second career WTA Tour title for Wickmayer, ranked 24th in the world.