Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-4 7-6 (7-2) in Sunday’s final to complete a successful defence of the Washington WTA tournament title.
Seventh seed Rybarikova, who is ranked 43rd, improved her record at the hard-court tournament to 10-0.
Half of her four career titles have now come in Washington.
“I would love to play (here) all the time, maybe,” said Rybarikova.
She fell behind 4-0 before taking eight consecutive games to win the first set and go up 2-0 in the second.
There was one other blip for Rybarikova, who was broken while serving for the match at 5-4 in the last set.
“I was really tight and my arm was kind of shaking,” Rybarikova said.
But she pulled herself together in the tiebreaker.
Petkovic, in contrast, was feeling fatigued out down the stretch backing up 15 hours after her rain-delayed semifinal finished past 2am on Sunday.
By the time she got a massage and ate something and wound down, Petkovic said, she didn’t get to bed until 5am.
“That lack of energy – it doesn’t affect my body so much, but it affects always my emotions and my mental state. So I was getting really emotional out there when I normally stay really calm,” said Petkovic, a former top-10 player who is coming back from a series of injuries and is currently ranked 64th.