The Czech battle in the Chinese final lasted three and a half hours. Kateřina Siniaková won the title in the end

The part of the WTA tennis season taking place on the Asian concrete continued in the Chinese city of Nanchang. Once again, Czech players were successful, with Marie Bouzkova and Kateřina Siniaková reaching the singles final. After a long fight and a big turnaround, the latter won.

The way through the tournament

Marie Bouzkova has done particularly well in doubles in recent weeks, triumphing in Beijing and Seoul. However, she proved her singles qualities at the WTA 250 event in the capital of Jiangxi province.

29. the world number three seed did not lose a set on her way to the final. She successively defeated Kathinka von Deichmann of Liechtenstein, Amina Ansba of Russia, Camila Osorio of Colombia and another Russian, Diana Shnaider.

Kateryna Siniakova had her tournament championship within reach a week ago in Hong Kong, where she was eventually defeated in the final by Leylah Fernandez 3:6, 6:4 and 6:4. However, the world number 60 returned the defeat to the Canadian at the Jiangxi Open.

The semi-final match ended with a 7:5 and 6:4 result for the Czech. She had previously knocked out the home team’s Yuhan Wang and Frenchwoman Varvara Gracova. Her German opponent Laura Siegemund gave up before the quarter-final stage.

A clear first set and a tiebreaker

Bouzkova entered Sunday’s Czech derby for the title much better. She took her countrywoman’s serve three times in the first set, but did not hold her own once and won clearly 6:1.

The second set was more even from the beginning. At 3:2 for Bouzkova, Siniakova required treatment after losing her serve. The same thing happened in her lost final in Hong Kong, but this time the native of Hradec Kralove continued the match.

She then evened the pace with her teammate from TK Sparta Prague. First, she turned away her match point on her serve and then, thanks to a break, she tied the match at 5:5. Moments later, she even worked out four set points in the long twelfth game, but did not take advantage of any of them.

The tiebreak had to be decided in which Siniakova forced a crucial third set. She led 6:2 in the shortened game, then allowed Bouzkova to reduce the difference to a single point, but not the turnaround. She won 7:5.

The decision in the dramatic ending of the third set

The dramatic spectacle of interesting exchanges continued on the centre court in the city of six million in south-east China. Siniakova erased a 1:3 deficit at the start of the deciding set. Bouzkova reached another break soon afterwards, which was also undecided. When she served for the win, she missed two match points.

After that, there were more break points on both sides, but the tiebreak was again decisive. Katerina Siniakova won 7:4, thus completing a great turnaround in the score. The 27-year-old won her fifth singles title on the WTA circuit after a duel lasting three hours and 33 minutes. She has previously triumphed in Shenzhen, Bastad, Portoroz and Bad Homburg.

Two years younger than Marie Bouzkova, on the other hand, did not add another championship to the one she won last year at the Livesport Prague Open. According to live-tennis. eu, she should be ranked 35th in Monday’s edition of the world rankings, while Siniakova is 44th.

Source: WTA, O2 TV Tennis, live-tennis.eu