Tennis-Vondrousova battles past qualifier Wang to win Berlin Open final
Tennis - Berlin Tennis Open - Steffi Graf Stadium, Berlin, Germany - June 22, 2025 Czech Republic's Marketa Vondrousova in action during her final match against China's Xinyu Wang REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
BERLIN (Reuters) -Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova needed three sets to subdue Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu on Sunday and win the Berlin Open title, completing an improbable run to her first trophy since her London triumph two years ago.
The 25-year-old Czech, ranked 164th in the world after an injury-plagued 12 months and featuring in her first final since winning Wimbledon two years ago, saved six setpoints in a tight first set tiebreak.
The 23-year-old Wang showed few nerves on her maiden singles tour final, and levelled after breaking her opponent once in the second set.
But Vondrousova, who also beat Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the first round and world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final in Berlin, raced back with two breaks of her own to go 4-1 up in the decider.
She then played a perfect service game at 5-2, with a superb dropshot, a crosscourt backhand winner and powerful forehand that forced an error by Wang on matchpoint number one.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Giles Elgood)
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