BMW Malaysian Open 2014 Results
Croatia’s Donna Vekic captured her first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour singles title at the BMW Malaysian Open at the Royal Selangor Golf Club (RSGC) in Kuala Lumpur today.
The seventh seed however, blew it in the third set before edging World No. 10 and top seed Dominika Cibulkova 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) in the rain-interrupted final, which lasted more than two hours. It was also her first ever win over a top 10 player. She earned a prize purse of US$43,000 for her efforts while Dominika received US$21,400.
“It was a tough match, she played very well. I was 5-1 up in the third set but she played insanely well to get back. The fans here really helped, so this win is for them as well.”
A finalist in Tashkent (2013) and Birmingham (2013), Donna had a healthy 5-1 lead in the third set and should have served out the match. However, Dominika clawed back into the match to level at 5-5.
However, the World No 95 Donna kept her nerves to win the title in a tiebreak. Donna started well in the first set as she broke Dominika’s serve for a 3-2 lead. However, the match stopped due to rain when Dominika was on serve at 15-30.
When play resumed, Donna made errors on court, allowing Dominika to break back in the eighth game to level at 4-4. However, the first set went to Dominika after she broke Donna’s serve in the 12th game.
Hungary’s Timea Babos and Taiwan’s Chan Hao Ching won their first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour doubles title as a team in the BMW Malaysian Open at Royal Selangor Golf Club (RSGC) in Kuala Lumpur today.
The top seeds defeated fourth seed Zheng Saisai of China and Taiwan’s Chan Yung Jan 6-3, 6-4 in the rain-delayed final, which lasted for 71 minutes. It was Timea’s first doubles title of the season since victory in Sydney with Lucie Safarova in January. As for Hao Ching, the win in KL is her third career title.
Today’s triumph also meant that Hao Ching got the better of her older sister, Yung Jan, for the second time in a final following victory in the mixed doubles gold medal match at last year’s East Asian Games. Yung Jan could have been the first player in the BMW Malaysian Open to win a second title after winning the doubles event with China’s Zheng Jie in 2010.
The champions earned US$12,300 and 280 ranking points for their efforts while Zheng Saisai-Yung Jan received US$6,400. In an error-prone first set, both pairs broke each other in the opening four games before Timea- Hao Ching earned a decisive break point in the eighth game to win in 35 minutes.
BMW MALAYSIAN OPEN – KUALA LUMPUR, MAS
$ 250,000.00
APR 12- 20, 2014
RESULTS – APRIL 20, 2014
Women’s
Singles – Finals
[7] D Vekic (CRO) d [1] D Cibulkova (SVK) 57 75 76(4)
Women’s
Doubles – Finals
[1] T Babos (HUN) / H Chan (TPE) d [4] Y Chan (TPE) / S Zheng (CHN) 63 64
