At the moment of her sporting triumph, Bernarda Pera thought of her former coach Kristijan Schneider, who passed away in April. "The tennis world has suffered a great loss and I would like to dedicate this trophy to him," said the US-American with a faltering voice on centre court during the award ceremony for her title win at the Hamburg European Open. It was perhaps the most emotional moment at the Hamburg European Open 2022.
With a surprising 6:2, 6:4 victory over the top-seeded world number two Anett Kontaveit (26/Estonia), Pera has crowned her sporting dream of the past two weeks. She has now followed up her victory in Budapest with success at the Rothenbaum. The 27-year-old has now won twelve matches without dropping a set in an impressive run of success. "It was incredible fun to play here," said Pera, "Hamburg is a beautiful city, the crowd was great and I hope I can come back next year."
The Croatian-born American, who now lives back in her home town of Zadar, will climb to 54th place in the world rankings next Monday. She has never been better in her career. She was ranked 81st in Hamburg. The win against Kontaveit was the second success against a top ten player in her career.
Pera was the better player right from the start in the final with the great self-confidence from the last few weeks and absolutely deserved to win. Kontaveit agreed: "You played great and absolutely deserved it." The left-hander dominated the match with a lot of pressure, aggressive returns and almost flawless groundstrokes. She took Kontaveit's serve in the very first game and broke her again to make it 5:2.
Pera also won her opponent's serve twice in the second set to make it 3:2 and 5:2, but when she was called upon to serve out, she looked a little unsure for the first time, as Kontaveit had now significantly reduced her mistakes and was able to close the gap. However, Pera then held her nerve and after 74 minutes capitalised on her first match point in a high-class women's final.