Olga Danilovic wins the WTA 125 Nordea Open in Bastad after defeating Emma Navarro in Saturday's final. The Serbian won with a score 7-6(4) 3-6 6-3 and took her second career's title at this level of competition after the victory in WTA 125 Madrid two months ago.
Unusual tiebreak headlines the shaky start
Navarro was a top seed in the tournament's main draw and considered as a slight pre-match favorite with an odd 1.64. The play has started better for Danilovic though, as the Serbian was on the front foot from the start. The opening set was quite erratic from both with 6 breaks in first 9 games. Danilovic gained the lead three times, but Navarro managed to come back with a score every time and forced the tiebreak. The 13th game was super shaky and quite unusual, as 10 out of 11 points played ended up with mini-breaks. Danilovic won the only one own serve in the opening point, which helped her to clinch the first set after winning in this weird tiebreak by 7-4.
Danilovic prevails the momentum switches
The American raised up her level after start of second set and dominated this phase of match, as she broke her opponent 3 times in a row to move up into 5-1 lead. Danilovic made up one break from the gap, but Navarro managed to keep her advantage and forced the decider by winning 6-3. Third set brought another momentum switch with an early break gained by Danilovic. The Serbian was leading even by 4-1, but it was still just one break cushion, cleared by Navarro in 7th game. Danilovic regained her advantage in the following game, as she earned another break which occured to be decisive for the final result.
Ranking movements
The winner of Nordea Open drops in the WTA rankings despite her successful run for the title in Bastad. Olga Danilovic was the runner-up in WTA 250 tournament in Lausanne 52 weeks ago. After deductions of the ranking points related to this achievement and not gaining any points in Wimbledon Championships after being eliminated in qualies, the Serbian could just make up the losses by any good result earned in Swedish challenger event. Danilovic drops down to 105th place, which means that she misses out the main draw cut-off for US Open, which closes on Monday. Emma Navarro drops down by 2 places from her career's highest 55th into 57th, as the American was the winner and runner-up of two ITF tournaments in the respective ranking weeks in 2022. The finalists from Bastad can look in the calendar with good hopes, as they are both scheduled to play in WTA 250 clay events in Palermo and Lausanne in the upcoming weeks. Danilovic will approach this tournament with an impressive run of form, as she won 15 out of last 16 matches played on clay, including two WTA 125 won on the road.
