Karolina Pliskova denied Caroline Wozniacki a second Eastbourne crown, and in turn claimed her maiden title at Devonshire Park with a polished straight set success to claim the Aegon International.
The Czech no.3 seed, given a semi-final walkover over injured British ace Johanna Konta, claimed the opening set courtesy of just a single break of serve.
Former world no.1 Wozniacki, who triumphed on the south coast as a tenacious teenager in 2009, dug deep but couldn’t find a way to stop Pliskova’s powerful service game.
The Dane, ever popular with the Centre Court crowd, gave her best but finished second best – something that has occurred before at Eastbourne for the no.6 seed.
She admitted:
“I’m going to go step-by-step, and hopefully I can go far at this year’s Wimbledon.”
Pliskova will be hoping that history repeats itself as the last Czech to clinch the Eastbourne crown was Jana Novotna in 1998, who won Wimbledon a fortnight later.
