In the last WTA tournament of 2015, Yanina Wickmayer and Nicole Gibbs advanced to the final at the Carlsbad Classic, a 125K series event. The top seed Wickmayer of Belgium made the most of her wildcard beating Maria Sakkari of Greece in straight sets: 6-4, 6-2. Wickmayer who won the Tokyo title in September, is seeking her fifth career title. Gibbs, the fifth seed, defeated fellow American Jennifer Brady, also in straight sets: 6-0, 6-4. The twenty-two-old Gibbs is chasing her first WTA level title.
The Belgian got off to a shaky start dropping her serve in the third game, but was able to get the break back immediately. Indeed, the first set was marked by five breaks of serve. Wickmayer’s service points won were slightly higher than Sakkari’s (54% versus 47%, respectively). Wickmayer, currently ranked 49, improved her level of play in the second set. She did not face a break of serve and capitalized on both of her break chances. Sakkari continued to win less than half of her service points while Wickmayer won 73% of her service points in the second set (despite a first serve percentage of just 55%). Sakkari is at her highest ranking of 182 and has seven ITF titles to her credit.
Gibbs, a Stanford graduate, cruised through the first set in only 28 minutes in the second semifinal match. She won 65% of her service points, while Brady won a paltry 32%. Gibbs jumped to quick lead in the second set, going up 3-0 before Brady got on the scoreboard with a break of Gibbs’ serve in the fourth game and then converted another break in the eighth game to get back on serve, 4-4. Gibbs closed out the match giving up only one point in the final two games.
Gibbs, twenty-two years old, is currently ranked 122. She has won four ITF titles in her career and reached the third round at the 2014 U.S. Open, beating Caroline Garcia and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to get there. The twenty-year-old Brady is ranked 232 and has won two ITF titles.
Wickmayer and Gibbs have not faced each other previously at the WTA level.
