Unseeded Diana Shnaider became the 6th player to win multiple titles this season with a 6-3 2-6 6-3 victory over Croatia’s Donna Vekic at the WTA 600 Bad Homburg Open in Germany, which was the Russian’s first tour title on grass in what was just her 4th professional tournament on the surface.
Very glad I was able to play one of the best weeks of my life… hope I can keep going like this. Diana Shnaider
The 20-year old also became the youngest player on tour to win more than one title this year, having lifted her maiden trophy at Hua Hin in February.
Shnaider, who started the grass court tournament at a career-high ranking of 47 and now will rise to No 30 in the next WTA rankings, fired 9 aces and saved 10 of the 13 break points she faced in the match.
Days before her first appearance in a Wimbledon singles main draw, a thrilling first set saw Shnaider making a clinical start to go 3-1 up before Vekic’s powerful returns made her work hard to hold every service game.
Shnaider saved 2 break points as she went 5-2 up, surviving 7 deuces before holding, and her next serve also saw a prolonged battle, with Vekic saving 3 set points, but the Russian fought back from 7 break points, finally landing an ace to take the set.
The momentum was with Vekic going into the second, as she quickly got her first break of the match to go 2-0 up, before breaking again to take the match into the final set.
Bad Homburg champion Diana Shnaider poses with her elephant trophy alongside runner-up Donna Vekic
The third began on an even keel, with both breaking early, but Shnaider remained calm under pressure.
She broke Vekic’s serve to take a 2-1 lead, and broke again to take move ahead 4-3, before converting her first match point lead on the Croatian’s serve.
In a final of unseeded players, Shnaider had taken 4 of her 6 break chances.
“Very glad I was able to play one of the best weeks of my life… hope I can keep going like this,” Shnaider said after lifting the tournament’s elephant-shaped trophy, her second career title.
“What a match you played… you really deserved the title,” said Vekic, who lost her second WTA final on grass “I got the small [elephant] this time and, next year, we will come back for the big one.”
Vekic will face Wang Xiyu in the 1st-round of Wimbledon on Monday, while Shnaider, who was eliminated from the qualifiers last year, will play 2021 runner-up Karolina Pliskova.
Doubles champions Nicole Melichar-Martinez & Ellen Perez defeated Hao-Ching Chan & Veronika Kudermetova in Saturday’s final at the Bad Homburg Open
The doubles title was won by America’s Nicole Melichar-Martinez & Ellen Perez from Australia, the No 1 seeds, who defeated Taipei’s Hao-Ching Chan & Veronika Kudermetova from Russia, 4-6 6-3 [10-8] in the final.
