By Chris Oddo | Saturday February 27, 2016
Carla Suarez Navarro claimed the biggest title of her career by engineering a stunning comeback versus Jelena Ostapenko in the Doha final.
Photo Source: Qatar Total Open
Carla Suarez Navarro shook off a shaky start, dug herself into the trenches, drew upon her wealth of experience and came away with an uplifting 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jelena Ostapenko at the Qatar Total Open final on Saturday.
“I lost the first set but I believed. I fought, I ran and finally I won,” said an ecstatic Suarez Navarro after the final.
Up against an aggressive, in-form Ostapenko, Suarez Navarro had to weather the storm, find her calm and keep chugging. The 18-year-old Latvian, playing in just her second career final, came out like a house on fire, drilling winners to all corners and pouncing on everything that the Spaniard left in her hitting zone.
Though Ostapenko’s all-out attack did not wither, Suarez Navarro did a much better job of attacking and defending in the second set and her hard work paid in the form of the set’s only break in the seventh game when an Ostapenko backhand drifted long on the Spaniard’s second break point.
Suarez Navarro claimed the middle set on an Ostapenko forehand error, and despite falling behind by a break early in the third set, continued to patiently poke holes in the Latvian’s game.
Though Ostapenko would finish with 35 winners to just nine for Suarez Navarro, the Latvian’s error count totaled 45.
Suarez Navarro would reel off four games to take a 4-2 lead in the decider and hold serve in her final two service games to clinch her second career title to improve her career record to 2-8 in finals.
“It’s amazing, a dream come true,” she said. “I was in the top-10 last year but not No. 6, so it’s a special number.”
The Spaniard will reach a career-high ranking of No. 6 in the world when rankings are released on Monday.
Ostapenko, who is the first Latvian to reach a WTA Premier final, will rise to inside the top 40 from 88 as a result of her final appearance. She will join Belinda Bencic and Daria Kasatkina as one of three 18-year-olds in the WTA’s top 50 next week.