Marie Bouzkova lifted both her second Hologic WTA Tour singles title and second at the Livesport Prague Open with a three-set comeback over fellow Czech Linda Noskova on Saturday.
Prague: Scores | Draws | Order of play
In the ninth all-Czech tour-level singles final since the Czech Republic became an independent nation in 1993 — and third such final at this event — fifth seed Bouzkova dropped the first set for the second time in five matches before coming back for a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 triumph.
She previously lifted the trophy at the tournament in 2022, making her the first repeat champion since the event was elevated to a WTA 250 in 2015. The 27-year-old is now 2-0 in tour-level singles finals in the Czech Republic in her career, and 0-6 elsewhere.
Home cooking: A Czech woman has now won the title six times since 2015. In addition to Bouzkova, home champions at the event began with Karolina Pliskova in 2015, followed by Lucie Safarova, Petra Kvitova and Barbora Krejcikova.
Pliskova, Safarova and Kvitova all dropped the first set in those finals, making Bouzkova’s 2 hour and 12-minute second win the fourth hard-fought home triumph.
That was also another personal milestone for Bouzkova: Five of her previous finals went to three sets, but she never managed to win a deciding set with a trophy on the line.
Kichenok and Ninomiya deny a Czech sweep: In the doubles final, Lucie Havlickova and Laura Samson were denied a hometown sweep, however, in a comeback effort by No. 2 seeds Nadiia Kichenok and Makoto Ninomiya.
The 20-year-old Havlickova and 17-year-old Samson, competing in their first tour-level doubles final, raced through the first set against the favored team but couldn’t keep the momentum going. Kichenok and Ninomyia regrouped after losing a 3-0 second-set lead, and came from 4-2 behind in the match tiebreak, for a 1-6, 6-4, [10-7] win.
The team of Ninomiya and Kichenok is now on an eight-match winning streak, having triumphed last week at the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open.