Bertens takes Volvo title

Kiki Bertens felt fortunate to escape a tough semifinal match with a victory 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 in Charleston, S.C., 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 Saturday washed out most of the semifinals. Bertens, 26, was nearly ousted by Keys, saving a match point in the third set before prevailing in tiebreaker, 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.” 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 top20 opponents in 2018 entering Sunday before defeating Keys (ranked 14th) and Goerges (ranked 13th) in the space of about eight hours. Goerges figured to be the fresher finalist, needing only about 25 minutes to finish off her semi with Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, which was tied at 4-4 in the opening set Saturday before the rain came. But it was Bertens, ranked 27th in the world, who showed fire and drive on center court in the finals.