Jean-Guy Fugère
On Sunday, World No.71 Camila Giorgi of Italy achieved her supreme aspiration and won the women’s singles event of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers at IGA Stadium.
She played with authority and accuracy to dispose of World No.4 Karolina Pliskova of Czechia, 6-3, 7-6.
In doing so, she gained her third professional title and very first WTA 1000 crown and became the first Italian woman since Flavia Pennetta to win such a prestigious championship. She also happens to be the first Italian player to win in Canada.
Pliskova was downed in her fourth consecutive WTA final and third match against Giorgi in the past two months. She will have to inject a lot more confidence into her big matches to add a 17th piece of hardware to her trophy case.
In the first set, Pliskova came close to getting up 4-2 but squandered the break point she was offered. Giorgi played her cards much better. She broke her rival, got to 4-2 and then secured another break point to close out the set in 44 minutes.
There was some tense tennis in the second set. Giorgi earned the early break and a considerable advantage at 3-1, but Pliskova surged in the next game.
At 6-5 for Giorgi, Pliskova made an unfortunate double fault that gave two match points to her opponent, who capitalized on the second.
Camila Giorgi hit 7 aces versus 4 for ace queen Karolina Pliskova and racked up 74 points (versus 67).
