Sunday, April 20, 2014

Vekic upsets Cibulkova to win Malaysian Open

First it was Cornet when it was "supposed" to be Radwanska, then it was Garcia when it was "supposed" to be Jankovic. And now, just a week later, top seed Dominika Cibulkova is departing from  Kuala Lumpur with the runner-up trophy. 17-year-old Donna Vekic, who has been in a finalist position twice before, won her first WTA title today, and also got her first top 10 win. In today's Malaysian Open final, Vekic defeated Cibnulkova 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 in a 2-hour and 51-minute thriller.

When Cibulkova was up 7-5, 5-4, it looked like the match would soon be over, but Vekic then won seven games in a row, which put her at 4-0 in the third. Cibulkova, not unexpectedly, fought her way back in, and at 5-2, Vekic saw three match points disappear. The set went to a tiebreak, which Vekic won. She wound up with only one point more than Cibulkova in what turned out to be a very close and exciting final.

Vekic said that "I was up 5-1 in the third set and she came back out playing insane, so I'm happy I was able to get through in the end."

Top seeds Timea Babos and Chan Hao-Ching won the doubles title. They defeated Chan's sister, Chan Yung-Jan, and Zheng Saisai in the final.

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