Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova finally seals victory in marathon Hong Kong Tennis Open final
Russian star is crowned the new champion after beating Australia’s Gavrilova in a final that was delayed by Typhoon Khanun and finishes way past midnight
It was a matter of minutes before the organisers’ deadline of 8pm that the conditions were judged to have improved sufficiently enough for tennis to be attempted. Following a concerted effort from an army of tournament staff armed with towels, driers and squeegee mops, centre court finally saw some action at around 9.20pm.
Unsurprisingly, it was a small band of hardy fans who braved the tail-end of the typhoon and made the effort to come out for the finale, but those that did were treated to a thrilling final match.
The champion was appreciative of the fans who stuck around until 1.03am to see the conclusion of the match.
“Thank you all for staying up late,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “We really appreciate it and it’s nice to have a nice crowd, although it’s not so big.”
“It was an amazing and really tough match out there,” she added. “This morning we were ready to share this trophy and I actually think we both deserve this trophy it was a really close match, just I was maybe lucky a bit in the end.”