WTA tournament: Siegemund loses final in Thailand

Laura Siegemund narrowly missed the third singles title of her tennis career on the WTA Tour in Thailand.

At the hard court tournament in Hua Hin, the 36-year-old from Metzingen lost in the final against world number 102 Rebecca Sramkova from Slovakia 4:6, 4:6. This means that for the time being, she will remain with her tournament victories in 2016 in Bastad/Sweden and 2017 in Stuttgart.

Despite the defeat, Siegemund jumped 30 places in the world rankings and is now the German number one as of Monday, in 69th place, ahead of Jule Niemeier (Dortmund) and Tatjana Maria (Bad Saulgau). Sramkova (27) celebrated her first tournament victory on the WTA Tour.

Marathon match in the round of 16

Siegemund had to work hard in the second round of the tournament in Hua Hin with prize money of 267,082 dollars and had advanced to the quarterfinals after a three-set thriller lasting 4 hours and 9 minutes against the Chinese Wang Xiyu.

It was the longest party on the WTA Tour since 2011. She had enough energy for two more rounds, but in the final, which took 1:56 hours, Sramkova was too strong.