Kiki Bertens: Defending the title is always special

Following Netherland’s Fed Cup loss where Kiki Bertens cried the entire night, the Dutch is back smiling again as she successfully defended her St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy title in Russia. The second seed breezed past Elena Rybakina 6-1, 6-3 in one hour and 14 minutes to become the first player to successfully defend this title.

“To defend your title, it’s always something special. You come with such great memories, and if it happens where you have a beautiful trophy again, I’m more than happy,” Bertens told WTATennis.com.

“This week was a really tough week. We lost Saturday night in the deciding doubles, 7-6 in the third set and 10-8 in the tiebreak. It was a really tough day. Sunday, I was flying here already, but I think I was still crying for the whole night because I felt so bad after that tough loss,” she further added.

“I was coming here and putting all the energy I still had left in me during my matches. My team was pushing me this week, so I’m really thankful for that. You can still achieve anything if you just work hard and fight every day to win a match, and you can still hold a trophy at the end of the week.”

She is presently ranked at No.8 on the WTA charts and this is the first title of the season for her and 10th overall. She has been ranked as high as No.4 in the world and has earned over $11 million in prize money.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2P4cmaR