WTA St. Petersburg: Kiki Bertens defends her title
The Dutch Kiki Bertens successfully defended her title at the WTA Premier tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Feb 16, 2020, 04:32 pm
Bertens beat Elena Rybakina 6: 3 and 6: 1 in the final and celebrated her 10th tournament victory on the WTA tour.
For the eighth in the world rankings, it was already the fourth tournament victory on hard court after it had achieved its greatest successes mainly on clay until 2018.
"I didn't make it easy for them to watch me this week. But they believed in me, victory was for them," the 28-year-old said afterwards in the direction of her team.
Rybakina got off to a great start in 2020
Even if there wasn't much to get for final opponent Rybakina (WTA No. 25) this time, she remains one of the players of the young year. The 20-year-old had already reached the final in Shenzhen at the beginning of the season and won in Hobart. Your record in 2020: 15 wins with only 3 losses. It will move into the world's top 20 for the first time on Monday.
Bertens would have been Kim Clijsters' comeback opponent in the coming week, but withdrew yesterday because she didn't want to go directly to St. Petersburg on another continent under different conditions.
Bertens will receive $ 146,500 for her win in St. Petersburg.