Barty Ends Losing Streak to Lift Nottingham Trophy on Grass at WTA Nature Valley Open
Top seed Ashleigh Barty ended a three-final losing streak on Sunday at the WTA stop in Nottingham, Great Britain, winning her second career title by defeating No. 4 seed Johanna Konta 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 for the Nature Valley Open title.
ADHEREL
“I feel like I’ve been playing well all week,” said Barty, who won her first career title last year at Kuala Lumpur. “It’s been building and building and getting better and better each match. I knew that Jo was going to be the toughest test this week, so I’m just really glad that I came through that and it was a really high quality match. And it was a really good grass court match too, in the sense that it was a bit serve-dominant at times.”
Barty is 1-1 in finals this year after falling in the Sydney championship match.
Konta had beat Barty in straight sets last year in the Nottingham quarterfinals.
Barty in the third set ran out to a 4-1 lead before Konta tied it up 4-4, then Barty won the last five points of the match to close it out.
“Nottingham brings back very good memories of back when it was an ITF $50K tournament, not even WTA yet,” Barty said. “I have really fond memories of it and always feel like I’ve played well here. To come away from the trophy again is really exciting.”
Konta, appearing in her first final of the year, was looking for a first title since Miami of last year, and dropped to 3-3 in career finals.
You Might Like:
Former Wimbledon champions Muguruza, Kvitova Headline WTA Birmingham on Grass
Kvitova WTA Leader with 5 Titles After Birmingham Win
Garcia Tops Vekic For Nottingham Crown
Konta Not Klutch, Can’t End Brit Grass Drought as Vekic Wins Nottingham
Konta Back To Winning Ways, Collects Nottingham Title For First Trophy In 4 Years