Cibulkova crowned champion, Vesnina-Makarova win WTA Finals doubles title

Debutante Dominika Cibulkova defeated World No.1 Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4 to win the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, while Russian pair of Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova beat the American-Czech duo of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova 7-6(5), 6-3 for the doubles title on Sunday.

Slovakia's Cibulkova opened the match with a blistering start, going up 3-0 against Germany's Kerber. Although the German fought back, the Slovakian seemed to dominate the match, ending the first set 6-3, reports Xinhua.

With a huge roar, Kerber led 2-1 at the very first stage of the second set. However, she continued to struggle with her rhythm as Cibulkova showed consistent power.

The Slovakian finally got tight, putting in two nervous points at 15-40, and Kerber played incredible defense. However, a bad return miss from Kerber at deuce gave Cibulkova the emotional victory.

Cibulkova said that no words can describe her feeling after the victory. "Coming here for the time and winning the biggest tournament for my life. I just remembered the match point, I put the ball over the net, it was the happiest moment in my life," she said.

Cibulkova noted that it was not easy to go on the court, but the newly-crowned champion thought she was mentally very strong.

"I just knew I played well. In the first two matches, I was a little bit unlucky, and today you could see, I was really lucky in the end," said Cibulkova with a smile on her face.

Kerber told the press that she is little bit disappointed after the loss, but she gave everything.

"It was a tough year with a lot of matches, so I gave everything on court today, the rest energy I had left. Of course when I'm looking back it's one of my best years. I think when I will go home now I will just think about the best moments and the positive emotions," said the German.

As the year-end top four has already confirmed -- Kerber, Serena, Radwanska and Halep, Cibulkova's ranking rose to number five after winning the match.

In the match for doubles title, Vesnina and Makarova defeated Mattek-Sands and Safarova 7-6(5), 6-3 after one hour and 38 minutes.

"It was such a great match. It was really a pleasure to play against Bethanie and Lucie and to be honest we really enjoyed playing it," Vesnina said after the match.

"We weren't sure until the very end that we were going to win it. It was a really, really close match."

--IANS

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