Hobart: Qualifier Barthel Wins First WTA Title

Results – Saturday, January 14, 2012
Singles – Final
(Q) Mona Barthel (GER) d. (1) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 61 62

Doubles – Final
(4) Begu/Niculescu (ROU/ROU) d. (3) Chuang/Erakovic (TPE/NZL) 67(4) 76(4) 105 (Match TB)

Final Facts
- Barthel wins her first WTA title; her best previous result was the semifinals of Copenhagen last year (where she lost to Caroline Wozniacki, whom she shares a birthday with: July 11, 1990).
- Barthel won eight matches in Hobart (three qualies, five main draw); she beat four of the Top 5 seeds in the main draw (No.2 seed Medina Garrigues, No.5 seed Gajdosova, No.4 seed Kerber, No.1 seed Wickmayer).
- Barthel is the first qualifier to win a WTA title since Tamira Paszek won Québec City in 2010.
- Wickmayer is now 3-4 in her career in WTA finals.
- Begu and Niculescu saved two match points against Chuang and Erakovic in the doubles final.
- Begu wins her first WTA title of any kind, while Niculescu wins her second (she won a doubles title with Alisa Kleybanova in 2009).

Final Quotes
Mona Barthel: “I was a little bit surprised at the score, but I played a really good match today and she made some easy mistakes. I made only a few mistakes and put a lot of pressure on her. I also think I served well, not just today but throughout the week. It helped me a lot, especially in the tough moments.

“I just tried to take it match by match and play each one the best I could. I never thought I would win the title. I’m really surprised. I don’t really realize it yet.”

Yanina Wickmayer: “She played a very good match and it was a bad performance from me. I didn’t play well. I tried to be aggressive but made a lot of unforced errors. I was looking for my game but couldn’t find it out there today. I’m going to try to forget this one as soon as possible.”

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