Anett Kontaveit loses in Stuttgart final
Estonian tennis player Anett Kontaveit lost in the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, to Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-6(2), bringing to an end a run which had seen the world no. 15 rapidly progress through the tournament as opponents dropped out of the preceding two matches.
Kontaveit broke the Czech player's serve twice in the opening set, but still saw her opponent take a commanding lead of 4-2 in games, with the Estonian only picking up one more game in the first set.
The second set started similarly, with world number three Kvitova breaking Kontaveit's serve on the first game, before the latter went on to take a 3-1 lead. However, this was not enough of a cushion, and Kvitova broght things back level. This one step forward, one step back led to regular games finishing 6-6 in the second set, pushing it into a tie break, which Kvitova ended up winning 6-2 and thus 7-6 overall in the set.
Kontaveit had bypassed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus when the latter had to drop out of the quarter final, in the third set, which Kontaveit was leading, and had an even easier time of it in the semi-final after world number one Naomi Osaka of Japan pulled out of the competition, handing the Estonian the final at the all-woman competition on a plate.
A string of strong results in recent months has seen Kontaveit, 23, from Tallinn, rise to a career (and Estonian) record 14th in the world, since settling down to 15th place.
Editor: Andrew Whyte
