By Tennis Now | Sunday, July 17, 2022
Petra Martic charged through the final five games defeating Olga Danilovic 6-4, 6-2 in the Lausanne final to capture her second career title.
Photo credit: Getty
A resurgent Petra Martic celebrated her red roll with the Lausanne championship.
Martic slashed six aces and faced just one break point defeating Olga Danilovic 6-4, 6-2 to capture her second career title at the Ladies Open Lausanne.
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It is Martic's first championship since she beat Marketa Vondrousova to win the 2019 Istanbul crown on red clay.
Martic played crisp combinations running through the final five games of the match.
The 31-year-old Croatian defeated three seeded players en route to the final—fifth-seeded Nuria Parrizas Diaz in her opener, second-seeded Belinda Bendic in the quarterfinals and sixth-seeded Caroline Garcia in the semifinals.
Today, commanding serving helped Martic avenge her 2021 Australian Open loss to Danilovic and beat the 124th-ranked Serbian qualifier for the first time.
Repeatedly whipping the wide slice serve on the deuce side, Martic dragged the left-hander wide of the doubles alley to set up aggressive firs strikes.
On her third set point, Martic put Danilovic in the corner and flashed a forehand winner down the line sealing the 54-minute opening set.
Martic served 71 percent in the first set giving Danilovic a look at just nine second serves in the set. In contrast, Martic mauled the Serbian's second serve winning 14 of 18 points played on Danilovic's second serve.
Facing a 1-2 second-set deficit, Martic answered with a fierce five-game run to close a 90-minute conquest. Martic broke at love for 3-2 and served out her second career title at love.
Afterward, a classy Martic praised Danilovic as a player with a very bright future.
"When I arrived here on the first day it was the beginning of qualies and I came to check out the center court and the opening match was Olga," Martic said. "I was with my agent and I told her, 'You know what, I think this girl is gonna be a such a great player.'
"And not only is she gonna be, she already is. you already won a tournament like this, beaten me before, done so many nice things. And it's only the beginning for you, congratulations."