Iga Swiatek of Poland retained her title with a straight-set victory over Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in a match between the world's top two players at the WTA Stuttgart Grand Prix here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Top seed Swiatek defeated world No. 2 Sabalenka 6-3, 6-4 after one hour and 50 minutes, in a rematch of last year's final on the indoor clay, capturing her 13th career singles title, reports Xinhua.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I wanted to win really badly, but I knew I couldn't focus on that and just had to keep doing my job as I did in previous matches," Swiatek said. "I'm pretty happy that I could maintain a good mentality and just focus on what I wanted to do tennis-wise."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Swiatek maintained her undefeated career record at the Stuttgart GP (8-0 in her two appearances) and now holds a 5-2 win-loss record against Sabalenka in their rivalry. It was also Swiatek's 20th win this year.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It was the first clay-court final between the world's top two-ranked players in a decade, with the last one occurring at the 2013 Roland Garros, where No. 1 Serena Williams defeated No. 2 Maria Sharapova for the title.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Reigning Australian Open champion Sabalenka left Stuttgart with 23 match-wins this year. Despite reaching the final in each of the past three years, Sabalenka was denied by Ashleigh Barty in 2021 before her two losses to Swiatek.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds and last year's champions Desirae Krawczyk of the United States and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands beat third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico 6-4, 6-1.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"In general, I think we play aggressively, we just like the (Stuttgart) court," Schuurs said. "Desirae is playing very well, and then I can do my job at the net."<\/p>\r\n\r\n