Germany’s Andrea Petkovic will be moving up in the WTA women’s rankings, as the 40th ranked woman in the world took out four players ahead of her in winning the Family Circle Cup.
Petkovic finished off the win by defeating Jana Cepelova for a 7-5, 6-2 victory Sunday. It was Petkovic’s first win on the WTA tour in three years.
The 26-year-old German, Andrea Petkovic was once ranked ninth in the world before several injuries slowed her progress and cost her much of the 2012 season. She used a powerful forehand and grind it out style to defeat Cepelova, Eugenie Bouchard, Sabine Lisicki, and Lucie Safarova in the first clay court tournament of the season.
”I still have a long way to go for me and I have a lot of potential,” Petkovic said. ”But I feel I’m on the right track.”
For the 20-year-old Slovakian, Jana Cepelova, it was the first WTA tournament final of her career. She is considered a rising, young player on the women’s circuit and its likely she will find herself in more tournament finals before she is done. Using this loss as a learning experience will help to further that career.
Cepelova is set to move up about 30 spots in the WTA rankings, and should land around 50th in the world when the new rankings are released tomorrow.
”Before the tournament, if somebody told me you’ll be in the tournament finals I would not believe them,” Cepelova said with a smile. ”But it was a really nice week.
Petkovic earned $120,000 for her third career WTA victory, which was her first since winning in Strasbourg in 2011. She felt the win was more gratifying than the previous two victories due to all the struggles she has had to overcome in recent years.
This ”is a different feeling,” she said. ”Now, I’m much more grateful. It’s more rewarding.”
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