Caroline Garcia of France won the 2016 Strasbourg WTA title by easily defeating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 6-4, 6-1 on Saturday.
Advertisement
The Croatian, who lost to Steffi Graf as a 15-year-old in 1997, needed just an hour to beat home hope Kristina Mladenovic 6-1 6-1. “It’s incredible”, Lucic-Baroni said.
Garcia had five aces, dropped serve five times, but broke Razzano seven times in a topsy-turvy match lasting almost three hours.
Lucic-Baroni will face Caroline Garcia in the final, after the Frenchwoman battled back from a set down against compatriot Virginie Razzano to prevail 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 7-5. She got another break to go 5-1 but Lucic-Baroni made a comeback and reduced the lead to 5-4 by getting both breaks back. “But hopefully that will change tomorrow”.
Duque-Marino was looking for her second career title against Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens in yesterday’s singles final. I had really good length to my shots and so she couldn’t do much from the baseline”, Bertens said after an easy win against the Colombian tennis player. She could not save the third as Garcia took the first set 6-4.
Advertisement
She will now turn her attention to the French Open, where she will begin her tournament against German world No 3 Angelique Kerber.
