She had to wait two years and change surface, but finally Dominika Cibulkova has put an end to her WTA title drought clinching her 5th career crown on Sunday, beating Italian Camila Giorgi in the final of the Katowice Open. The 8th seed was in control of the match all along, as Giorgi suffered from the nerves which tend to control the 24-year-old every time she plays into a final on the tour.
Cibulkova started off strong hardly missing a ball and moving Giorgi around to build a 4-0 lead. At 5-2 the Slovakian had her first chance to close the set on her serve, but got broken missing a backhand long with Giorgi placing two stunning forehand clean winner returns cross court in the game.
With another chance to serve to close the set at 5-4, Dominika stayed solid on her forehand, firing two winners in the game and managing to close out the first partial winning by 6 games to 4.
At that point, Giorgi let the match go and hardly put up a fight in the second set. Simply ripping the ball and hardly keeping it on court, the Italian was dominated by Cibulkova, who remained consistent to close the match in her favour.
Dominika won by 6-4 6-0 in just 1 hour and 14 minutes. With the win in Poland, the former Australian Open finalist conquered her 5th WTA crown, the first for her since the title she conquered in Acapulco in 2014. Starting on Monday Dominika – currently ranked at No. 53 – will be back in the top 40 of the rankings, at No. 38.
Visibly happy to end her title drought, Dominika hugged her staff on court:
Congratulations @Cibulkova champion of @KatowiceOpen_ !!😃💪👍👏🏆 pic.twitter.com/OwaPWS2Xlq
— LaWanda (@lawanda50) April 10, 2016
A finalist in Katowice for the third time in a row, Giorgi finished once again runner-up. The Italian has conquered one title on the WTA tour, last year in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
