© BELGA
Alison Van Uytvanck (WTA 89) won the tournament in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan (hard/$235,238) on Saturday. In the final, the second seed of home player and first seed Yulia Putintseva (WTA 47) won. After two hours and 23 minutes, the 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 final score was on the board.
Source: BELGIAN
It was the fifth mutual duel between 27-year-old Van Uytvanck and Putintseva one year younger. The Grimbergse had lost the four previous encounters. At the beginning of this year, the two met in the second round of the Australian Open. There Putintseva won 6-4, 1-6 and 6-2.
For Alison Van Uytvanck it is the sixth WTA title. In 2013, she was the best in Taipei 125K series tournament. This was followed by final victories in Quebec (2017), Budapest (2018 and 2019) and Tashkent (2019).
Yulia Putintseva aimed for a third WTA tournament victory. She opened her honors list in 2019 in Nürnberg and took a second title in Budapest in July.
“Yulia played an incredible first set”, Van Uytvanck referred to the 1-6 she had to swallow. “I didn’t even play that bad, but she didn’t miss anything. That put a lot of pressure on me. I tried to keep believing in myself, to stay aggressive, to fight for every point. And I did. Things can change in tennis. It worked, I am very satisfied. I have now won my five finals (not counting the two finals on the WTA 125K series, ed.). I couldn’t be happier. It was a difficult year for me. This gives confidence. When I got here on Monday, I never thought I would win. It’s very special, also because I was able to beat Yulia Putintseva which I hadn’t managed to do before. I knew it was going to be a difficult match, but beating her at home means a lot to me.”
Alison Van Uytvanck fits for Indian Wells because of the long journey (eleven hours) it would take to play in California. “I will go home, take a few days of rest because I need that, and then prepare Tenerife (18-24 October) and play two or three more tournaments and try to finish the season like today.”
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