Barty ends Teichmann’s dream run, clinches Cincinnati title

Cincinnati, Aug. 23 (IANS): World no.1 Ashleigh Barty of Australia ended the giant-killing run of world No.76 Jil Teichmann of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-1 to notch her fifth WTA singles title of the year by claiming the Western & Southern Open trophy here for the first time.

Barty, who collected her 13th career WTA singles title, became the first player to hit 40 match-wins this season as she conquered Teichmann in an hour and 13 minutes,

Despite the loss, Teichmann has had an outstanding run through the event, knocking out top-5 players Naomi Osaka and Karolina Pliskova and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic en route to the final.

For the majority of the clash, Barty was impenetrable on serve. The top seed slammed eight aces and won 85 per cent of points behind her first service. Barty broke serve five times and was only broken once, at the very end of the encounter.

Barty will now enter her 83rd straight week at world No.1 on Monday. Overall, next week will mark her 90th week at the top of the WTA singles rankings.

After coming close to an early break at 1-0, Barty took the lead for good at 4-3 in the opening set, drawing errors from Teichmann to move ahead 5-3. After a double fault in the next game, Barty won a long rally with a passing winner to lead 30-15, and wrapped up the one-set lead from there with two superb serves.

Barty reeled off eight straight games to lead 5-0 before Teichmann mounted a brief comeback, breaking Barty for the first time when the Aussie served for the match. But Barty quickly regrouped to win the final.