FILE PHOTO: Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain – July 6, 2019 Poland’s Magda Linette reacts during her third round match against Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova REUTERS/Hannah McKay
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Fifth seed Magda Linette ended Swiss qualifier Leonie Kung’s dream run with a 6-3 6-2 victory in the Thailand Open final in Hua Hin on Sunday to claim her second WTA Tour title.
Linette, a semi-finalist in Thailand last year, had dropped just one set heading into the final and she produced another dominant display to reach the top 40 in the WTA rankings for the first time.
The Pole pounced on Kung’s second serve and used her variety to dominate the 19-yer-old whose inexperience showed in her maiden WTA final.
“It was so tough today, I had to keep it together to the very end,” Linette, who won her first WTA title last year at the Bronx Open, said in a courtside interview.
“I knew I need to be the one leading the game. I knew I have to be really aggressive and I had that confidence from the matches before and I’m really glad that I managed to do what we planned with my coach.”
It was still a good week for Kung in her only second main-draw appearance at a WTA event.
“I’m just trying to build up my ranking even more and play day by day and just have fun and enjoy on court,” the teenager said.
Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Ed Osmond