Hamburg native Tamara Korpatsch put an end to a long German drought at the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open on Sunday, defeating Hungary’s Anna Bondar 6-3, 6-3 to claim the championship on home soil.
The victory makes Korpatsch the first German player to win the Hamburg Open since Steffi Graf took the title back in 1992 — a span of 34 years. In the time between Graf’s last win and Sunday’s final, German players had gone 0-4 in title matches at the tournament. Korpatsch wrapped up her second career singles title in one hour and 28 minutes and now holds a perfect 5-0 career record against Bondar.
Korpatsch came out of the gate strong in the opening set, firing two aces and converting 18 of 25 first-serve points — a 72 percent success rate. She jumped to a commanding 3-0 advantage by winning 10 of the first 15 points and sealed the set by breaking back to take control.
The momentum carried into the second set, where Korpatsch broke Bondar’s serve twice more, including the decisive break to close out the match.
Prague Open
In Prague, Austria’s Lilli Tagger celebrated the biggest win of her career, capturing her first WTA singles title with a 7-6 (3), 6-2 result over Ukraine’s Daria Snigur.
Tagger came out aggressive, racking up nine aces — five of them in the first set alone. Despite falling behind 5-2 in the opening set, she rallied to win five of the next six games and took the set in a tiebreak. She also broke Snigur’s serve at a critical moment when Snigur was serving to stay in the match.
Tagger went on to win five of the last six games to secure the championship, breaking Snigur twice while never once facing a break point herself. She added four more aces in the second set and converted 10 of 12 first-serve points — an 82 percent clip — to put the match away.
