In their first meeting in almost four years, second seed Dominika Cibulkova defeated good friend and top seed Marion Bartoli 6-1 7-5 in the final of the Mercury Insurance Open for her second WTA title and second Premier one.
Before their encounter in the final, Bartoli said:
Dominika and I love to practice with each other. We’ve practiced many times. We have been best friends since so many years now. It’s obviously a final, so we’re going to try our best to win, but it’s great to play against your best friend, because even if you lose, you’re happy for them.
After losing the first game of the match, Cibulkova won the next six to win the first set, while in the second she was trailing 4-1 before taking six of the next seven games and winning the match to add the Carlsbad title to her last year’s Moscow.
En route to the $96,000 title, after a first-round bye, Cibulkova defeated Marina Erakovic, Urszula Radwanska, fourth seed Nadia Petrova, and in the end Bartoli, who found the transition from three night matches to a day match difficult (and none of those matches were really walks in the park).
Cibulkova has recently named her hitting partner Peter Miklusicak for her coach, while during the Mercury Insurance Open she said how her former coach, Zeljko Krajan, was too negative and tough and how she should have ended their cooperation earlier. Jelena Jankovic has recently fired Krajan as well. (source: WTA Tour, photo by John Bolan)
