Kaia Kanepi sweeps away Carla Suarez Navarro to take the crown - Estoril Open 2012
Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain stooped to the sixth seed Estonian, Kaia Kanepi, in the final of the Estoril Open. On Saturday, the Estonian bagged her second title of the season by registering a terrific comeback from a set down
to oust her opponent 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.
These two contenders had won one match apiece in the previous two battles so it was expected to be a tight matchup. Considering the recent scenario, Kanepi was the hot favourite to win the contest seeing her superior rank. He won
the match against Navarro in 2011 during the Fed Cup tie as well so everything was in favour of the Estonian.
Both players started off with serve holds before the Spaniard took lead with a breakthrough in the third game. She further enhanced her position by registering another breakthrough in the match and took a lead of 4-1. However,
the sixth seed Estonian fought back into the contest with a successful breakpoint and diminished the trail to 3-5.
The problem with Kanepi was that she was not able to exert any sort of pressure with her serves. She was missing her spots and never looked to threaten her counterpart. The final game of the opening set featured the similar sort
of game play from her. She lost early points and despite winning two on the trot; lost the third breakpoint that gifted the opening set to the inferior ranked Spaniard.
In the second set, both players started in a vigilant fashion before the Estonian took lead in the third game with the help of the net. She won two lucky points hitting the top of the net; however, she apologized to her competitor
but that didn’t change the scores.
Navarro never lost heart and kept on the fight. She was rewarded in the sixth game with a successful breakthrough that was couple with a thumping serve hold to round off the seventh game. The follow-up game for Kanepi was dismal.
She missed a couple of straight forward shots to firtter away vital opoprtunities in the match. Navarro took full advantage of the situation and broke serve at the most crucial stage of the game. However, she was stopped in her
path by the Estonian with a timely breakthrough in the ninth game. The game entered the tie-breaker round and Kanepi edged ahead to enforce the third set into play.
The momentum swirled in favour of the Estonian who bagged a couple of breakthroughs in the final set and sustained the lead throughout the end to take the title. It was a world class battle that entertained the crowd for almost
two hours and 37 minutes.
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