In it's inaugural year, the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis open was full of great battles with Sabine Lisicki emerging the last women standing.
Lisicki, 2013’s Wimbledon finalist fought back from 5-1 down in the first set to win 7-5- 6-3. In a tournament where Lisicki was a tie-break away from exiting in the opening round, the German was rarely troubled on route to the final. Lisicki’s opponent was Karolina Pliskova who had survived a tough semi-final against Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck and was playing some great tennis coming into the final.
It was in fact Pliskova who started off on top; after Lisicki held serve, Pliskova went on to win the next five games and race into a 5-1 lead, leaving the set looking all but done. However Lisicki fired back with a run of herselves, winning the next five games herself leaving Pliskova serving to stay in the set. However Pliskova struggled, fending off one set point, Pliskova was powerless to prevent Lisicki taking the second set point, winning the set 7-5.
After that set, the momentum was firmly with Lisicki as she broke Pliskova to take a 3-1 lead in the second set and appeared to put the match beyond Pliskova’s reach. With both players holding serve in their next service games Lisicki was serving to go within one game of ending her trophy drought. Pliskova showed some fight however breaking Lisicki to put the second set back on serve and potentially take the match to a third set. Pliskova couldn’t consolidate however as Lisicki broke to 15 giving her the opportunity to serve for the title. She did this in style, taking the match with her first match point taking the match 7-5 6-3 and winning the fourth title of her career.
After a less than stellar year for the German so far, this trophy will be more than welcome for her and her fan base. After reaching the Wimbledon final in 2013, Lisicki had not had a great time of late with some disappointing results seeing her ranking fall. However her trophy win serves to remind us of the pure talent that Lisicki possesses.
As for Pliskova, this final was just another highlight of a breakout year for the 22-year old Czech. Although she won her first title in 2013, this year has seen a more consistent Pliskova. Having reached two finals already this year, Pliskova would have hoped for a different result than the other two, after losing to Ekaterina Makarova and Eugenie Bouchard at the Pattaya Open and Nuremberg respectively. It wasn't meant to be however as it was three runner-up trophies this year so far. However, at only 22, Pliskova will take some heart from these losses and will hope to build on her year so far.