Czech Republic's Sara Bejlek celebrates with the winning trophy after defeating Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova during their women’s singles final match at the Abu Dhabi Open tennis tournament in Abu Dhabi. AFP
After battling her way through the qualifiers, the 20-year-old left-hander recorded her seventh consecutive victory on the Emirati hard courts in just under one hour and 40 minutes against the world number 11.
After defeating former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the second round and Denmark's 16th-ranked Clara Tauson in the semi-finals, Bejlek had already had a week to remember before the final of the 500-level event.
At 4-3 in the first set, Alexandrova called for a medical time-out.
The Russian saved two set points at 6-5, but was unable to fend off another in the tie-break, eventually going down 7-5 after more than an hour and 10 minutes.
Against a visibly struggling Alexandrova, Bejlek ran away with the second set in less than 30 minutes.
The Czech, whose best ranking to date was 75th, will enter the top 50 for the first time thanks to her victory.
Despite her defeat, Alexandrova will return to the top 10 in the next WTA rankings.
(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
Short link: