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It wasn’t easy, but Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer defeated Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 7-5 6-2 to win the Estoril Open in Portugal and earn a place on the Road To Bali.
It was an amazing week for the 19-year old, whose previous best result had been to reach the Birmingham final in 2008, as she had to beat four seeded opponents on her way to her first career title. She is Belgium 's first Tour singles winner since Justine Henin won at Antwerp in February last year, and by coming into the tournament at number 88 she is the lowest-ranked Tour singles titlist so far this year. For her opponent it was a double-disappointment, as the previous week she had also reached the final in Fes but came away without the trophy.
"I'm really happy to have won my first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title," said Wickmayer. "I've worked hard for it. I don't really have many words to describe the feeling - I'm nearly speechless! I've been playing well for a few weeks now. I didn't have great results but I've been practicing really well. I felt this coming, not that I was going to win a title, but that I was playing well. I beat some good players this week so I'm very happy."
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