Barty captures Stutgart title; Nadal claims Barcelona crown

STUTTGART: World number one Ashleigh Barty earned her third WTA title this year by beating Aryna Sabalenka in the final of Stutgart’s claycourt tournament on Sunday.

Ater winning in Miami and a pre-australian Open event in Melbourne on hard court, Barty added the Stutgart title, her first tournament on clay this season, as the 2019 French Open winner gears up for Roland Garros next month.

A day ater her 25th birthday, the Australian rallied from losing the first set to claim a 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Sabalenka, who needed a medical time-out ater the second set for an adductor injury.

“Get healthy, get well - you’ll be back in no time,” Barty wished Sabalenka at the end of an “incredible week” for the Australian, who then played the doubles final with partner Jennifer Brady.

Despite playing the third set with her right leg strapped, Sabalenka even broke Barty at 3-1 in the decider, but ultimately failed to add Stutgart to January’s triumph in Abu Dhabi.

The 22-year-old said she hopes to be fit for the clay-court tournament in Madrid, which starts Thursday.

Rafael Nadal saved a championship point to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 7-5 on Sunday and claim a 12th Barcelona Open title in the ATP’S longest match of 2021.

The Spaniard secured his first title of the year and 87th of his career, denying Tsitsipas back-toback triumphs following his maiden Masters 1000 title at Monte Carlo last week.

Nadal avenged his Australian Open quarterfinal loss to Tsitsipas and will return to second in the ATP rankings on Monday by climbing back above Daniil Medvedev ater his marathon 3-hour 38-minute win.

Second seed Tsitsipas, a Roland Garros semifinalist in 2020, had won all 17 sets on clay this season and entered the final unbeaten on the surface in nine matches.

The Greek built up a 4-2 lead in the opening set ater breaking Nadal in the third game but dropped his serve twice in succession as the 20time Grand Slam champion hit back to win four games in a row.

Fith-ranked Tsitsipas, who won just three games when the pair met in the 2018 final here, again procured an early break in set two but Nadal responded to haul himself level at 3-all.

Nadal failed to convert two match points as Tsitsipas clung on to hold when trailing 5-4, with the Spaniard saving three break points in the very next game.