Dubai: Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, ranked 14th in the world, is one win away from retaining the title of Eastbourne Preparatory Tournament for Wimbledon by reaching the final after defeating Italian Camila Georgi, ranked first in the session 6-2 6-2, on Friday.
It took the 25-year-old Latvian one hour and eight minutes to overcome Georgi’s obstacle and reach the final without losing a set in the current edition of the tournament, which won her title last year at the expense of Estonian Annette Kontavei.
Roland Garonne, the 2017 champion, commented on her performance in Eastbourne, saying, “It’s been a great week for me so far, and I feel like I’m playing better from one game to the next.”
After winning the Dubai Championships at the beginning of the season, Ostapenko seeks to raise her tally to six titles by coming out victorious from the twelfth final in her career.
But the task will not be easy against the Czech Petra Kvitova, who returns to the Eastbourne final for the first time in 11 years when she lost in three sets to French Marion Bartoli in 2011 after she put an end to the winning streak of Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maya in 13 games by winning 7-6. (7-5) 6-4, preventing the world number 29 from trying to win her third title in a row after she had previously been crowned the champion of Nottingham and Birmingham during the past two weeks.
Kvitova, 32, will play her first final since winning her last 28th professional title in Doha last year, hoping to strip Ostapenko of the title in order to prepare in the best way for Wimbledon, which she crowned champion in 2011 and 2014.
It will be the second final this year between Ostapenko and Kvitova after the first in the quarter-finals of the Dubai tournament, when the Latvian emerged victorious in three sets 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (11-9), achieving her fourth victory over her Czech opponent out of eight meetings between them.
