Barbora Krejcikova breezes past Anett Kontaveit to win Tallinn Open, her first WTA Tour title of the season

Barbora Krejcikova claimed her first title of the year by beating top seed and home favourite Anett Kontaveit, 6-2 6-3, in the inaugural Tallinn Open final.

The victory is her fourth WTA Tour career singles title and her first of the season. She had previously claimed her first three singles titles last year, including a Grand Slam singles title at Roland-Garros in 2021.

But Krejcikova had not won a singles title since her third triumph of 2021 in Prague last summer.

Kontaveit had won 24 consecutive indoor matches on hard courts, but she struggled against Krejcikova, who won 71 per cent of points on Kontaveit’s second serve, breaking twice in the opening set and three times in the second.

She went 4-2 up in the first and then broke for a second time to seal the opening set, where Kontaveit made 13 unforced errors.

The Estonian attempted to get back in it with a break in the opening game of the second set, but Kontaveit came back to make it 3-1, before moving 5-3 in front with another break, and then securing the win after a wide Kontaveit forehand on the Czech’s first championship point.

“I’m really proud how I was able to bring my best performance for the final,” Krejcikova said after the match.

“I was expecting that Anett was going to play fast and she would try to put me under pressure from the first point. So I was just trying to play my game and just trying to eliminate that.

“I just really wanted to go out there and play my best tennis and just try to enjoy the final because it took me a lot of fight and energy to get there.

“Every trophy is special, especially in singles right now, where this year was really tough, so it means a lot.

“It was a really amazing week, a special week.”