Hungary’s Timea Babos has continued her strong start to 2018 by defeating Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova, 7-5, 6-1, to win the Taiwan Open.
Seeking only her third title on the WTA tour at the age of 24, Babos overcame a shaky start to surge towards the finish line. During the opening set, she dropped her serve twice during her first three service games. Despite the blip, Babos managed to regroup and wear Kozlova down in what was a milestone occasion for her. The Ukrainian was participating in her maiden final on the WTA Tour.
After coming through a roller coaster opening set, the second was one-way traffic. Babos dropped only five points behind her serve as she dismantled her opponent with ease. Breaking twice on route to clinching the title.
“It was not easy, she played really well and really aggressive in the first set,” Babos said after the match, according to wtatennis.com. “But I stayed there, I got all the important moments, and I really fought hard.”
“After I won the first set, I relaxed a bit, and I really let go of my shots, and I played a lot faster.”
The triumph in Taiwan comes after what has been a highly successful Australian Open for Babos. In Melbourne she won the women’s doubles title alongside Kristina Mladenovic, who has also reached the final of a tour event in St. Petersburg this week. Furthermore, she was also runner-up in the mixed doubles with India’s Rohan Bopanna.
“It’s been five-and-a-half weeks, amazing five-and-a-half weeks,” said Babos. “Starting with a quarterfinal [at the Shenzhen Open], winning my first Slam in doubles, beating a Top 10 player in singles [CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round of the Australian Open], and here winning another title in singles, it’s been amazing.”
“So far this season, in all my matches I’ve played, I’ve played good, I fought hard, and this is what happened all week here,” she later added.
Babos, who hit 38 winners during her clash against Kozlova, is predicted to rise back inside the top 40 for the first time since last June. She has been ranked as high as 25th in the world back in 2016.
