Germany’s Mona Barthel collected her third career WTA title on Sunday after eliminating Chanelle Scheepers in a close two-set match 6-3, 7-6 at the Collector Swedish Open in Bastad. The final featured a lot of upsets this week with seven out of eight seeds crashing out in the opening round and the last seed standing, sixth seed Annika Beck, bouncing out in the second round. This became the first WTA event where no seeded players made in the quarterfinals since Hobart in January of 2009.
Barthel had a challenging week which featured three set victories over qualifier Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain in the semifinals.
“It’s been an amazing week for me – I cannot believe I won the title!” Barthel said after the match.
“It was like a perfect week for me. I was fighting a lot – in some matches I was behind, and I was just fighting for every point. I’m just happy everything worked out. I love this tournament so much.
“I can’t wait to defend my title.”
Barthel will be gearing up for the North American hardcourt season and plans to take a mini-break from the sport.
“Now I’m going to have a couple of days of rest! My body needs it. I was so tired in the second set, and I just told myself I need this one, because I didn’t know if I’d have enough energy for a third set! So a couple of days of rest now, then heading to the US to prepare for the tournaments there.”
The doubles title was won by Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor and Andreja Klepac after the duo defeated British players Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith 6-1, 6-1.
