What a day for Mirjana Lucic-Baroni!
The Croatian was playing her first final after 16 years against former world no.1 Venus Williams. Everybody was thinking that Mirjana was already pleased about getting so far in the tournament and a defeated vs. Venus was just inevitable. Things went the other way.
The Croatian conceded just 7 games to Williams to win her 3rd career title; the first two were both in Bol (Croatia) in 1997 and 1998. (See deteails)
Lucic-Baroni
The Croatian commented “I’m so happy I can’t really find the words right now to explain how happy I am. I played such a great match today against one of the best players in the world, such a champion.
“It’s been so long. I’m finally playing the great tennis I always knew I could play, but it had been so long that I kind of lost a little bit of the belief in myself. But now after starting with my new coach Julian Alonso, winning matches and really getting that belief back, I’m just so ready to keep going.”
The Historical Gap
Marjana is now the player that had the biggest gap between titles (16 years). The previous record belonged to Kimiko Date-Krumm that had to wait 13 years before holding a trophy again (San Diego in 1996 and Seoul in 2009)
“It’s not bad!. It was so long ago, I don’t even remember what it’s like to hold a trophy in my hands. It’s just incredible. I’m still in a little bit of shock because I was so focused today, but oh my goodness, it’s just an amazing feeling right now.” she added.
