Victoria Azarenka clinches 6th WTA title of 2012 at Generali Ladies Linz

By Alexia Krause

Victoria Azarenka wins her 13th career title at Linz

LINZ, Austria (TheSportsNEXT) October 14, 2012: World number one Victoria Azarenak won her sixth WTA title of the Year 2012 on Sunday when she outplayed Julia Goerges of Germany in straight sets to clinch final of the Generali Ladies Linz in Austria.

 

The Belarusian world number one, who was top-seeded in the Linz WTA event, produced yet another remarkable performance to clinch her 13^th career title and Sunday’s victory was her 12^th consecutive triumph.

Victoria Azarenka needed only an hour and 18 minutes to beat the world number 19 Julia Goerges by 6-3 6-4 on the hard court of Linz.

The last few weeks have been quite extravagant for Azarenka as she won her 12^th career title in Beijing last week by undoing Maria Sharapova in final and she never dropped more than two games in the whole Linz event.

Fifth seeded Julia Goerges had no answer to a mixture of strong serves and ferocious returns by the world number one as she had to witness the same fate as she recorded in Dubai in February where she had to end up as runners-up.

This was Victoria Azarenka’s fourth straight victory over Julia Goerges in all five matches between the two as the German had won their first bilateral encounter where the Belarusian had to retire owing to a shoulder injury in Stuttgart in April 2011.

The Generali Ladies Linz is a warm-up event leading to the WTA Finals in Istanbul starting this month and carries a prize money worth $220,000.

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Heather Watson ends 24-year British WTA title wait with Japan Open triumph

By Liu Shiwen

Heather Watson ends British WTA Title Drought

OSAKA, Japan (TheSportsNEXT) October 14, 2012: Heather Watson of Great Britain outlasted Kai-chen Chang of Taiwan by 7-5 5-7 7-6(4) in an epic thriller final of the Japan Open to put an end to her country’s 24-year-long wait for a WTA title.

Heather Watson achieved what her fellow countrywoman Laura Robson failed to do at Guangzhou Open last month and became only the first British woman to wear a WTA crown since Sara Gomer achieved the feat in 1988.

Heather Watson witnessed the two sides of the game during the hard-fought final which she started by winning the first set and then finding her on the ebb of losing the final with 5-4 down in the final set.

However, the Bollettieri-trained Heather Watson saved four match points at 5-4 in the third set to put her hands on the Japan Open 2012 title.

The world number 71 from Great Britain will get a major boost in WTA Tour Rankings which will be updated on Monday after her classy victory in the $220,000 Shanghai hardcourt event.

Since Sara Gomer’s WTA title triumph in 1988, Jo Durie was the only British woman player to qualify for the WTA event’s final in 1990 at Newport, which was well before either Laura Robson or Heather Watson came into this world.

Heather Watson told reporters, "It's just starting to sink in. I've worked so hard for this moment. That's why I practiced so hard, ran all those miles, lifted all those weights - for moments like this”.

Referring to Andy Murray’s inspirational London 2012 gold medal and US Open Grandl Slam title victory, Heather Watson said, “Britain has been breaking quite a few records recently. I'm happy I could break another one today. I'm proud to do this for my country."

Heather Watson, 20, had never before in her WTA career gone beyond the quarter-finals of a WTA tournament and she grabbed the opportunity with both hands when she eventually got the chance to play for the title.

On the other hand, Kai-chen Chang was looking to become the third Taiwanese woman tennis player ever to clinch a WTA title and she looked in great touch during the whole tournament after beating players like US Open champion Samantha Stosur in the semi-final.

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Caroline Wozniacki wins her first title for 2012

By Liu Shiwen

 

SEOUL, Korea (TheSportsNEXT) September 23, 2012: Former world number one woman tennis player Caroline Wozniacki won her first WTA title of the current year on Sunday when she floored Kaia Kanepi in a one-sided final of the Korean Open.

 

Once the top tennis player and now the 11^th in the WTA Tour Rankings, Caroline Wozniacki displayed her true color against the Estonian who had defeated her in French Open third year this year.

Caroline Wozniacki needed only an hour to complete an absolute victory with the score line of 6-1 6-0.

It was the 19^th WTA career title for Dane player Wozniacki, who finally found reasons to match her fiancée Rory McIlroy who has been witnessing great sporting year.

Caroline Wozniacki told reporters after her victory, "I just want to build up for the next season. And it's been a long season so I want to have a holiday and relax. I don't think about ranking. I'm just happy I won the tournament. I would like to enjoy that. I want to be positive, and that's what I'm thinking about right now."

It is important to mention here that Caroline Wozniacki had won her last WTA title at New Haven in August 2011 and it was her first WTA title in about 13 months.

Caroline Wozniacki completed the romp in just 62 minutes and lost only one game during the whole match against third seeded Kanepi.

Wozniacki stated, "Today I did well at turning defence to offence and offence to defence. That's actually a strength of mine. I'm very pleased with how everything turned out”.

"I want to enjoy it and be positive - so that's what I'm thinking about right now. I want to build up for the next season and hopefully my results this week will help me move forward and get back to playing my best", she added.

Kaia Kanepi had been catering to an Achilles injury which has been making her to pull out of all 10 of her tournaments between French Open 2012 and this week and also forced her out of the Wimbledon 2012, the London Olympics 2012, and the US Open 2012.

She told reporters, "My season has definitely had its ups and downs because of my injuries, but last year was the same, and my whole career has been a little bit up and down as well. It's nothing new and I'm used to it."

Now both the finalists will participate in the Pan Pacific Open starting in tokyo this week where they are seeded 10^th and 15^th, respectively. In their first match, Caroline Wozniacki would be up against Bojana Jovanovski while Kaia Kanepi will play against Silvia Soler-Espinosa.

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