After defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova in the final on Sunday, Anett Kontaveit won the 2021 Kremlin Cup. The ninth seed required two hours and 22 minutes to beat the Russian, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Kontaveit also won her third title of the 2021 season after rallying from a 4-6, 0-4 deficit.
Kontaveit made 36 unforced errors while hitting 34 winners. Alexandrova won one more match than Kontaveit and made seven more unforced errors.
While Alexandrova dropped the second set, she had a chance to serve for the title in the third set but was broken.
Alexandrova was unable to keep her serve a few games later, allowing the Estonian to win the match.
Anett Kontaveit’s late push for a place in the WTA Finals
“To go 4-0 down (in the second set), she was really hitting the balls down the line, she was playing amazing tennis,” she said as per reports on TennisHead.
“I was just trying to stay in it as long as I could, and I never really gave up. I was just trying to fight for every point as much as I could. If I would have lost 6-4, 6-2 or whatever, I knew I tried everything.
“When these moments happen, which they do happen, I’m just trying to think about the process and not too much of the score, which can be difficult, of course, sometimes.
“I think that the main thing is to try and think about the process and what I have to do, and not focus on other things that you cannot control.”
Anett Kontaveit reached her seventh Kremlin Cup final this season.
Kontaveit improved five places in the WTA Finals race after her victory and is now ranked 10th, with a chance to qualify for the year-end tournament in Guadalajara.
Meanwhile, Ekaterina Alexandrova was competing in her third WTA final, and she was attempting to win her second career title.
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