Barbora Krejcikova upset the number one seed Iga Swiatek in a marathon battle to win the Ostrava Open and secure her fifth singles career title.
The hometown hero defeated Swiatek 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 in a match that lasted 3 hours and 16 minutes, the joint longest decider this year with Angelique Kerber’s triumph over Kaja Juvan in Strasbourg, France in May.
It was the current French Open champion who took the early with Swiatek racing to a 5-1 advantage in the first set before the Czech battled back to restore parity at 5-5 before eventually losing the first set in 80 minutes.
The second was the opposite as Krejcikova led for much of the second stanza with Swiatek playing catchup but managed to do so at 4-4, coming close to within one game of another title.
Krejcikova secured an important hold from 30-30 in the 12th game before winning six of the first seven points in the tiebreak to force a decider.
Neither woman faced break point over the first seven games of the final set until Krejcikova struck first with a love break to serve for the match. Swiatek staved off a loss by saving five championship points, but a seventh ace handed the Czech the championship.
The Ostrava Open crown is the fifth WTA singles title for Barbora Krejcikova whose win streak now stands at nine as the former grand slam champion looks to get her career back on track.
For Swiatek, it was only her second career defeat in 12 tour-level singles finals and a first in three years.
