Roberta Vinci has overcomed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in straight sets to claim St. Petersburg title 6-4, 6-3.
The Italian got off to a strong start breaking Bencic in her first service game, and holding serve with incredible ease, leaving her opponent with no answer and finding herself with a comfortable early 3-0 lead, before the Swiss could even blink.
However, the 18-year-old Swiss star, who was seeking to claim her 3rd career WTA title and climb up to a potential career high of 7th in the world with a victory in today’s final, was quick to react to her somewhat distracted start and managed to break back and get back on level terms in the early stages of the first set.
But it was going to take more than a couple of bright sparks from Bencic to overcome the strength and resilience of last year’s US Open finalist, Vinci. The Italian showed her experience at the crucial stages of the match and in the 10th game of the first set, broke the Swiss again to grab the first set 6-4, with a sublime return service game against a Belinda Bencic who sat under the 50% mark of 1st serve points won.
This was the first meeting between the two, but it was very soon to go only one way. Vinci’s serve proved crucial in yesterday afternoon’s semi-final against Ana Ivanovic, and was again key today in leaving her opponent with very little opportunity to really trouble her.
She went on to dominate in the second set too; with an early break and winning 94% of 1st serve points, she deservedly raced away to a 6-3 win in just 25 minutes. One break was more than enough to consolidate Vinci’s domination on the court and to mount overwhelming pressure on the young Swiss, who had no answer to the Italian’s power and resilience.
Vinci could not have closed the match more adequately, judging her performance throughout the tournament and closed the match deservedly and in style with an ace to win her 10th WTA title.
