Yaneva E. beat Barthel M. 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 in Warsaw, taking the deciding set in a tiebreak. After Barthel levelled the match in the second set, the decider came down to the narrowest of margins.
The opener was a seven-break battle: Yaneva went ahead 2-0 and 3-1, Barthel took a 4-3 lead, Yaneva levelled at 4-4, and the set ended with Yaneva breaking at 4-6. Barthel then took the second set 6-2, breaking at 3-2 and 5-2. In the decider Barthel led 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3, but Yaneva answered at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 before winning the tiebreak.
The stats underline how tight it was: Barthel won 123 total points to Yaneva's 113 and broke eight times to seven, while Yaneva finished with eight aces to Barthel's six and saved 12 of 20 break points. In the end, the deciding-set tiebreak was the difference.