By Chris Oddo | Sunday April 15, 2018
Anna Karolina captured her first title in three years by claiming the Claro Open Colsanitas title in Bogota.
Photo Source: WTA
After a brilliant breakout season in 2015 that saw her reach six WTA semifinals, three finals and win two titles, Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova has plummeted down the rankings, struggling with confidence and form for the past two seasons and bottoming out in the low 200s in the rankings last February.
Today, she put an exclamation point on her return to the type of tennis she has the potential to play by claiming a 6-2, 6-4 victory over 2012 Bogota champion Lara Arrubarrena to claim the Claro Colsanitas title in Bogota.
The victory marks Schmiedlova’s first title since 2015—in a week that saw her claim her first tour-level victory since 2016 in the first round.
She ran into trouble late in the final, when she failed to capitalize on her first championship while serving at 5-1 in the second set. Suddenly Arruabarrena surged to life, breaking twice and notching her first hold of the match to close to 4-5.
But Shmiedlova broke in the tenth game, converting her second championship point to close affairs in 80 minutes.
The Slovakian will return to the Top 100 for the first time since September of 2016 as a result of her title. She improves to 3-1 lifetime in finals.
Arruabarrena was bidding for her first title since 2016. She drops to 2-2 lifetime in finals.