Estoril (final): Medina Wins 10th Title, Ties Venus On Clay

Written by: Staff on 30th April 2011

Results – Saturday, April 30, 2011
Singles – Final
Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) d. Kristina Barrois (GER) 61 62

Doubles – Final
Kleybanova/Voskoboeva (RUS/KAZ) d. Daniilidou/Krajicek (GRE/NED) 64 62

Final Facts
- 28-year-old Medina Garrigues wins her 10th WTA title and ninth on clay, tying her with Venus Williams for most clay court titles among active players.
– Heading into today’s final, Medina Garrigues had not won a title since Fès two years ago. Two months ago she was ranked No.92, having lost in the first round 10 times in a row.
– Ranked No.61 the week of Estoril, the former Top 20 player (she rose as high as No.16 in May 2009) is projected to return to the Top 50 on Monday.
– Barrois, 29, falls to 0-2 in WTA finals, having been runner-up to Maria Sharapova at Strasbourg last May. Ranked No.71 this week, she is projected to surpass her previous high of No.65 in the new rankings.
– Alisa Kleybanova and Galina Voskoboeva win their first title as a team; Kleybanova now has five WTA doubles titles to her name, Voskoboeva two.

Final Quotes
Anabel Medina Garrigues, 2011 Estoril Open singles champion:
“I played very aggressively and hit it high and deep. Kristina couldn’t do her game. She’s a creative girl – serve and volley, slice, drop shots – and I was there. I felt like she lost her concentration a little bit. I think I played well this week. I had some lucky moments… it wasn’t as easy as it looked this week and I’m happy to win my 10th title.”

Kristina Barrois, 2011 Estoril Open singles runner-up:
“Anabel plays with such heavy spin and is such a great clay court player, it was tough for me on every single point. But it has been a good two weeks for me. I’m disappointed about today but maybe tomorrow I’ll look back and be happier about what I’ve achieved here. I played some good matches here – I just need to forget about this one!”

Alisa Kleybanova, 2011 Estoril Open doubles champion:
“I’m really happy because I didn’t do so well in the singles, so it was important for me to play some more matches and to have some good wins in doubles as well. It instills confidence and you’ve won more matches, so another title can never be bad, always good! Galina and I have fun all the time. We’re good friends, so whenever we get the chance to play together I’m happy because we feel good on the court together.”

Galina Voskoboeva, 2011 Estoril Open doubles champion:
“Unfortunately we saw that Eleni had some injury problems coming into the match, but actually that didn’t help us! All four of us were so nervous on the court, but Alisa and I struggled a bit with our concentration knowing that Eleni was injured, and we needed to focus more on our game.”