Bertens whips Goerges for Volvo crown
CHARLESTON: Kiki Bertens felt fortunate to escape a tough semi-final match with a victory on Sunday morning. She wasn’t going to let things get so tight later on in the biggest match of her career.
Bertens of the Netherlands overpowered Germany’s Julia Goerges to cap a long, chilly Sunday at the Volvo Car Open with a 6-2, 6-1 victory for her fifth career WTA title and third of the past 11 months.
Bertens made it to the final by outlasting American Madison Keys as the WTA’s first clay-court event of the season had to double up on play after rain on Saturday washed out most of the semi-finals.
Bertens was nearly ousted by Keys, saving a match point in the third set before prevailing in tie-breaker, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5). Preparing for Goerges several hours later, Bertens thought, “OK, you could already have lost this morning, so just give everything and try to go for it,’’ she said. “And yeah, now I’m here with the trophy.’’
Perhaps the most important one of the 26-year-old’s career. Bertens, ranked 27th in the world, had won titles last May in Nuremberg, Germany and the Swiss Open against fields not nearly as loaded with top players as here. Bertens had gone 0-15 against top-20 opponents in 2018 entering Sunday before defeating Keys (ranked 14th) and Goerges (13th) in the space of about eight hours.”I’m just so happy and proud, I think, of myself,’’ Bertens said. “It’s a great start of the clay court season, and yeah, hopefully still more to come.’’