Marie Bouzkova has clinched her first Tour title on home territory after thrashing Anastasia Potapova in the final of the Livesport Prague Open.
The world No.66 stormed to a 6-0, 6-3, win over an opponent who is currently ranked seven places higher than her on the WTA rankings. Before today’s match, Bouzkova had settled for runner-up three times before on the Tour, including the Abierto Zapopan in Mexico earlier this year. However, in Prague, the eighth seed didn’t drop a set in five matches played.
“It’s a dream for me to win my first title here at home,” Bouzkova said during the trophy ceremony. “I just couldn’t be happier. … It’s a dream come true and I enjoyed playing in front of the home crowd so much.”
In what was a one-sided final, Bouzkova astonishingly didn’t hit a single winning shot despite dropping just three games, according to official stats issued by the WTA. Something that rarely happens in the sport. In total, the 24-year-old produced no winners and eight unforced errors. However, an extremely erratic Potapova hit 12 winners against 44 unforced errors. To make the situation even stranger, in the previous round Potapova crushed world No.2 Anett Kontaveit 6-1, 6-1.
“Marie, I mean this week for you was amazing and I’m very happy for you the first title at home,” the Russian said. “It’s very sweet and I’m very happy for you.
“Thank you to my team for the support, I know I’m not an easy girl to play, and lets see what the future will bring.”
Bouzkova is the fifth home player to win the Prague Open after Karolina Pliskova in 2015, Lucie Safarova in 2016, Petra Kvitova in 2018 and Barbora Krejcikova in 2021.
The Czech has now recorded 23 wins on the Tour this season against 10 losses.
Garcia returns to the winner’s circle
At the Warsaw Open in Poland, Caroline Garcia clinched her first title since 2016 with a comprehensive 6-4, 6-1, win over Ana Bogdan.
Garcia, who has been ranked as high as fourth in the world, won 73% of her first service points as she broke her opponent five times in the match. It is the third time she has won a WTA trophy on the clay after Bogota 2014 and Strasburg 2016. Overall, she has won nine Tour titles so far in her career.
“Thank you to my parents who are watching from home. They have been behind me since the beginning,” Garcia said afterwards. “It means a lot as they are not travelling as much with me so they are not here (in Warsaw) today. But I’m thinking a lot about them and thank you for being behind me when it’s tough. Today is a great day and they deserve it as well.”
En route to the Warsaw crown, Garcia stunned Iga Swiatek to record her first-ever win over a world No.1 player on her tenth attempt. In her nine previous matches, she had only managed to win just two sets against No.1 players. She also defeated Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the semi-finals.
Garcia has now won 26 matches so far in 2022. To put that into context, throughout the entire 2021 season she only managed to achieve 21 wins.
