By Erik Gudris | Sunday, February 5, 2017
The St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy event featured two women vying for their first ever career WTA title. In the end, France’s Kristina Mladenovic found herself holding up the trophy after defeating Yulia Putintseva in Sunday’s final.
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But it wasn’t easy for the the 23-year old Frenchwoman who served for the match three times against a determined Putintseva. Later, Mladenovic admitted that the moment of winning her first title got to her.
“It was a very difficult and intense week,” Mladenovic said. “Yulia is such a big fighter. I couldn’t relax somehow and find my rhythm. I tried to stay calm and composed and had a huge lead in the second set and in the third. It’s safe to say I was nervous almost choking a little but I guess that’s what happened trying to reach my first WTA title and I’m super happy it’s here in St. Petersburg.”
Putintseva entered her first ever WTA final after posting two big wins against top ten players Dominika Cibulkova and Svetlana Kuznetsova earlier in the week.
Mladenovic came out to a blistering start in the opening set. The Frenchwoman jumped out to a 3-0 lead backed up by strong serving. Mladenovic then held for 5-2 later thanks to back to back aces.
Mladenovic broke Putintseva again to close out the first set 6-2.
The Frenchwoman kept up her relentless momentum in the second set. After striking a forehand winner to close out a tough service game at 3-2, Mladenovic made her move again. She broke Putintseva to extend her lead to 4-2 and soon served for the title a few minutes later.
That’s when trouble started for Mladenovic when up 5-3. As she began to make a few more errors, Mladenovic trusted big serve let her down. Mladenovic, trailing 30-40, hit a double fault allowing Putintseva back in the match.
Putintseva took control and soon found herself serving for the set up 6-5. But Mladenovic countered with strong play up at net, including with a high backhand volley winner to give herself a break point. Mladenovic converted on it and placed herself in a tiebreak.
Mladenovic mistimed several forehands at crucial moments in the tiebreak. That allowed a fired up Putintseva to seal the set 7-6(3) and force an unexpected third set.
The momentum shifted again when Mladenovic resumed hitting big serves and big forehands as she had in the opening set. Mladenovic broke Putintseva to start the set and then held on to her serve for 2-0.
Racing out to a 5-2 lead, Mladenovic once again found herself serving for the title.
Putintseva would not back down. The Moscow native fired off three huge winners when facing match points against her, and then took the game when Mladenovic netted a forehand down break point.
Mladenovic would try and close out the match a third time when up 5-4. The Frenchwoman struck yet another forehand winner to give herslef a fourth match point. Putintseva again responded with a huge return winner.
On her fifth match point, Mladenovic finally was able to get the ball past Putintseva to seal the 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4 victory.
Mladenovic struck a whopping 62 winners and 46 unforced errors compared to 32 winners and 21 winners from her opponent.