Krajicek emerges Champion
Oct 10th, 2005

Young Michaella Krajicek won the Tashkent Open for her maiden WTA Tour title today. She overcame not just her nervous opponent, Akgul Amanmuradova, but also a partisan home crowd and her own first-time finalist jitters.

Krajicek, who double-faulted when she had her first matchpoint, won 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in just over 100 minutes in a match which was totally one-sided in the beginning but became a more even contest as it progressed. At 16, though, she isn't youngest champion of the event. Last year's champion Nicole Vaidisova was 15 when she won it.

Amanmuradova, also playing her first WTA final, appeared to be totally overwhelmed by the occasion and didn't get going at all in the first set – she didn't even get to gamepoint on her serve in the set.

“I never felt so good like today,” said a delighted Krajicek, playing only her second tournament after a knee injury in June had kept her out of action for three months.

The feelings were just the opposite for Amanmuradova who appeared crushed by the loss. “It's the worst thing to lose in a final. I'd much rather lose in an earlier round.

“The way I played, I was not confident at all. When I hit the ball, I didn't know if it would go in or out.”

When told that Krajicek had said she too was very nervous, Amanmuradova replied: “She may have said so but she didn't appear nervous to me. She was confident, played the crucial points very well. The only time she appeared under pressure was the ninth game in the second set, when she dropped serve.”

After a disastrous first set, Amammuradova started serving and stroking better in the second. But what really got her back into the match was a bad call in the fifth game, when she was serving 30-40.

A break then would possibly have meant curtains for her. Instead, she raised her game another notch, serving more crisply, she had eight aces in the set after serving none in the first, and finding the consistency in her groundstrokes.

Amanmuradova's improved play saw her take the set after Krajicek made a series of unforced errors in the ninth game to drop serve. But the Uzbekistan No 1 didn't have enough steam left to take the momentum into the third set. “I found it difficult to move in the third set,” she was to say later.

Krajicek was patchy in the third set, committing far more unforced errors than usual.

“I was really nervous in the third set. Both of us were nervous.” But after dropping serve in the fifth game, having just broken Amanmuradova before that, she regained her composure. “At 3-2 in the final set, I told myself, be calm, play normally,” she said later

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