Angelique Kerber gave herself a confidence boost ahead of Wimbledon, which starts Monday, by winning her first tournament in three years to take the WTA Bad Homburg grass-court title.
Kerber, a former world number one, beat Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in Saturday’s final to win her first title since victory at Wimbledon in 2018.
After losing two finals in 2019, this is Kerber’s first tournament win since beating Serena Williams to win Wimbledon, when she claimed her third Grand Slam title.
“It means a lot to me today. This is my surface, I felt very comfortable on grass and I’m just happy to have finally won a tournament again,” said Kerber, whose family was watching in the stands.
“To be able to do all this in front of my friends and family is even nicer.”
This was Kerber’s third grass-court title, alongside Wimbledon in 2018 and the WTA Birmingham tournament in 2015, and the 13th tournament win of her career.
The 33-year-old had struggled this season and slipped down to a world ranking of 28, but proved her form this week in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt.
After rain washed out Thursday’s schedule, Kerber beat two-time former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in her semi-final on Friday, just hours after her victory in the quarter-finals.
It was a good fitness test for Kerber, who played six sets on Friday, having gone to three against Kvitova and also Amanda Anisimova of the USA in her quarter-final win.
Ostapenko storms to Eastbourne title
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko claimed her first title for nearly two years with a dominant 6-3, 6-3 win over Anett Kontaveit to win the Eastbourne International on Saturday.
Ranked 43 in the world, former French Open champion Ostapenko was handed a wildcard to the Wimbledon warm-up event and could be a contender on the grass at SW19, where she was a semi-finalist in 2018.
Kontaveit had won the two previous clashes between the pair, but Ostapenko never looked back after racing into an early 5-1 lead in the first set.
Just one break of serve was required in the second to secure the fourth tour title of her career.
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