Alize Cornet surprises Yanina Wickmayer to claim the title – NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies 2012
A gruelling battle in the final showdown of the NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies tournament witnessed a stunning result, as the seventh seeded French tennis prodigy, Alize Cornet, outsmarted the second seeded hot favourite Belgian, Yanina
Wickmayer, to claim her second career title. The 73rd ranked French youngster laboured extremely hard for two hours and 13 minutes before she dumped the world number 37 in straight sets, 7-5, 7-6(1), to come out as the stunning champion.
It was an evenly poised contest, with both finalists delivering their best to surpass each other. Wickmayer has been absolutely berserk throughout the tournament but a couple of crucial misses in the final proved to be extremely
taxing for her in the end. She moved neck-to-neck with Cornet in both sets but the 22-year-old French managed to manoeuvre her way to victory with her sheer brilliance and guile.
The second seeded Belgian had earlier defeated Cornet three years ago in Luxembourg, 7-5, 7-6(6) but the French tennis prodigy registered almost the similar sort of score line to level the head-to-head series at 1-1. She bettered
Wickmayer in every segment of the game to stamp her authority over the game and finally claiming a championship title after a gap of four years.
"I was playing a lot of chip and slice today - she plays really aggressively, and I can't play like her or she will kill me," Cornet said. "I knew it would be a really tough match. Yanina's a really good player. I was about to
lose the second set but I fought so much and tried to stay calm and positive, and that helped. I played well on the important points and that's how I won in two sets. It has been four years I haven't won a singles title, so it's just happiness now. I'm so
happy. It's been a super week. I really love this tournament. "
The seventh seeded French won 30 out of 47 first serve points and broke her opponent’s serve five out of six times en route to her emphatic victory. On the other hand, Wickmayer could barely register four out of six serve breaks
and secured 25 out of her 45 first serve points to finish on the losing side in the end.
A title victory in Bad Gastein, Austria, just before the beginning of the third Grand Slam event of the season, Wimbledon Championships, can be extremely helpful for Cornet and she might carry on her winning impetus to formulate
some more surprises in the mega event.
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