Czink Wins Bell Challenge

Written by: Staff on 21st September 2009

Czink Wins Bell Challenge

Photo by pfctdayelise under creative commons 2.5 license. |

The Bell Challenge has a new champion as Melinda Czink took the tournament for the first time on Sunday, as she beat Lucie Safarova, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Although Safarova took the first set, the Hungarian hung tough and then broke the Russian in the fourth game of the second set to tie the match. She then traded breaks with her opponent in the third and tightest set to take the championship.

“It feels great. I haven’t really processed it yet but I will,” Czink said. “I went match by match this week. This was the toughest match this week. I had to take some risks on her serve today – sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. We really pushed each other, and I’m happy I could come out the winner.”

“We both played a good match. I think it just came down to a few balls and she did it better,” Safarova said. “The whole week I was trying to be very aggressive and move forward, but she did the same today and I had trouble dealing with it. I didn’t feel I did anything wrong today. It could have gone either way.

“I hope to come back next year and do better. Unless you win, you can always do better!”

This was Czink’s first final of the Tour and she beat the higher seeds in Quebec this week to win, including Nadia Petrova and Aleksandra Wozniak in the proceeding two rounds.

Topics: Aleksandra Wozniak, Balls, Champion, Game, Hungarian, Match, Melinda Czink, Opponent, Petrova, Proceeding, Quebec, Seeds, Wins