DE MINAUR AND KVITOVA TOP IN SYDNEY
SYDNEY: Australian teenager Alex De Minaur won two matches in a day to claim his irst career ATP title at the Sydney International on Saturday.
De Minaur, 19 and ranked 29, conquered the fresher Italian Andreas Seppi 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) in the final after overcoming Frenchman Gilles Simon in a rain-postponed semi-final earlier in the day.
De Minaur’s triumph made him the youngest winner of the Sydney tournament since his mentor Lleyton Hewitt claimed it as a 19-yearold in 2001.
Sydney-born De Minaur is the first Australian champion at the 134-year tournament since Bernard Tomic in 2013.
De Minaur has soared 208 places to 29 in the ATP Rankings and was named ATP Newcomer of the Year after earning 28 tour-level victories throughout his 2018 campaign.
KVITOVA CHAMP
Petra Kvitova outlasted Ashleigh Barty in a final-set tiebreak to win the Sydney International for the second time on Saturday.
The Czech 2015 champion and fifth seed fought back from dropping the opening set and an early break in the final set to beat the top-ranked Aussie, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) in two hours 19 minutes.
It was a gutsy performance from the two-time Wimbledon champion who only finished her semi-final against Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the early hours of Saturday.
Kvitova had beaten Barty both the previous times they played, including in the Birmingham final in 2017, but she had to dig deep to win her eighth straight final, coming back from an 0-3 deficit in the final set.
Kvitova prevailed despite her serve being broken six times in the match but she finished with 31 winners to Barty’s 23.
1ST WTA TITLE FOR KENIN
Composed American Sofia Kenin broke through to clinch her first WTA title Saturday with a straight sets win over Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova at the Hobart International.
The unseeded 20-year-old put in a dominant performance to win 6-3 6-0.
“I’m really happy to have won. I didn’t want to overthink it and I’m happy with the way I composed myself during the match,” said Kenin, ranked 56 in the world.
Kenin’s power and depth of groundstrokes made the difference and Schmiedlova succumbed in 71 minutes.
Kenin now proceeds to Melbourne where she will play Russian qualifier Veronika Kudermetova in round one of the Australian Open.
SANDGREN LIFTS CROWN
American Tennys Sandgren was left speechless Saturday after claiming his first ATP tour title with a comprehensive straight sets win over Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the Auckland Classic final.
The 27-year-old Sandgren took just 79 minutes to beat Norrie 6-4, 6-2 to round out a remarkable week of tennis without dropping a set.
“I’m a little lost for words,” a relieved Sandgren said when a Norrie service return went over the baseline to end the match.
“A lot of work, a lot of training, a lot of sacrifice goes into even making a final and to get a win, I’m speechless.” In a tournament in which none of the seeded players made it to the final four, Sandgren was playing only his second ATP final -- having lost in Houston last year -- while it was the first for wildcard entrant Norrie.