Romania’s world No.24 Mihaela Buzarnescu made short work of Greek world No.49 Maria Sakkari to win her first WTA title at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, having never previously played the tournament’s predecessor in Stanford.
The fifth-seeded Buzarnescu lost just one game in the title match against the unseeded Sakkari, but the encounter lasted one hour and 13 minutes, not less than an hour, which is usually the case when the scoreline is 6-1 6-0. Buzarnescu notched up her 35th tour-level victory of 2018, while prior to this season, her career total number of wins at this level stood at three!
En route to the title, the 30-year-old defeated Sachia Vickery in the first round, Amanda Anisimova in the second, Ajla Tomljanovic in the quarterfinals, Elise Mertens in the semis and finally Maria Sakkari – three of these victories were three-setters and Buzarnescu has contested 18 three-set matches in 2018, being the only player besides Katerina Siniakova to have played as many.
The triumph lifted Buzarnescu to a new career-high ranking of No.20.
Buzarnescu’s winning Sofibella apparel: the Miami Pocket Cami and the Miami Skill 12″ Skirt.
