Promising Czech teen Linda Fruhvirtova, 17, said she felt good about her game and sensed that she could do really well in Chennai. On Sunday, Fruhvirtova defeated third-seeded Magda Linette 4-6 6-3 6-4 to win her first WTA title in Chennai.
En route to winning Chennai, Fruhvirtova also defeated Liang En-shuo, Rebecca Peterson, Varvara Gracheva and Nadia Podoroska. “I was feeling good in my game, and I knew that I could do a good result here, but it was much better than we all probably expected,” Fruhvirtova said after winning the title, per the WTA website.
“I’m pretty much in shock. It feels amazing, and I feel like it’s a great start for me to keep building on this. It was still just one break [in the third set] and [Linette] had a chance to go up for 5-1, and that would be really bad.
So I think the fact that I went 2-4, it helped me, I still had a chance. I just started believing again and being confident, just fighting for every point.”
Fruhvirtova recovered from a set down to beat Linette
Linette earned the first break of the match in the ninth game to open a 5-4 lead, before serving out for the first set in the following game.
Fruhvirtova bounced back in the second set, claiming her first break in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. In the ninth game, Fruhvirtova routinely served out for the second set. After losing the second set, Linette earned an early third set break and led 4-1 through the first five games.
Up by a break and a 4-1 score, Linette had a break point which could have given her a 5-1 lead. But Fruhvirtova saved that break points and won the last five games of the match to overturn the deficit and complete a three-set win. This week, Fruhvirtova plays in Seoul. In the Seoul first round, Fruhvirtova will be clashing Yanina Wickmayer.
