Wickmayer lands Auckland title

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:59

The tournament’s third seed won 6-3 6-2 and rated her performance as “almost perfect”, after a slow start.

Wickmayer said: “I started off with a few mistakes, I know how she plays, I know she is a really tough one and she doesn’t make a lot of mistakes so from 3-1 down I really played the perfect match I think.”

Wickmayer said she had to be aggressive and move into the net because Pennetta made her play her best tennis.

She explained: “If you don’t play aggressively against her you just keep playing and the balls keep coming back and she’s just so consistent and plays such amazing tennis when she is not under pressure.

“I had to play really aggressive and move into the court. If I wasn’t going to be aggressive she was going to take over.”

A wild card into the event after a court last month overturned a one-year ban when she fell foul of the Belgian doping authority’s “whereabouts rule”, Wickmayer must now go through qualifying for the Australian Open.

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