The Romanian made short work of the Italian Lucia Bronzetti this Sunday, in the final, in Palermo.
Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu (45th in the world) won the fifth WTA tournament of her career on clay in Palermo, overtaking Italian Lucia Bronzetti (78th) 6-2, 6-2 in the final on Sunday evening. Begu, 31, had not won a singles title on the circuit since the Bucharest tournament at the end of July 2017, five years ago. Bronzetti was playing her first WTA final at 23. Faced with a seasoned player, member of the World Top 100 since 2014, she was far too tender.
The first set was one-sided: at 1-1, the great Romanian (1.81m), eighth finalist at Roland-Garros this year, took the service of the Italian for the first time to lead 3-1 , then a second to escape 5-1 and pocket that first set 6-2 in 37 minutes.
Bronzetti’s revolt, but…
Under an intense heat – it was still 30 degrees at the start of this final at the start of the evening – the second round seemed to have to take place according to the same scenario as the first: successful break at the start by Begu, then double break, to lead 3-0. It was then that Bronzetti, varying his game and his ball lengths more, using the weapon of amortization, managed to take his opponent’s service to come back to 3-2 thanks to a “white game” on his commitment . But Begu put the work back on the job to finally win this final without fear 6-2, 6-2 in 1 h 32 min.
