Watched by a large crowd, including her two-year-old daughter, Tina, she took on the tall, powerful-serving Swede and despite allowing her opponent to come back into the game in the first set, after she had built up a healthy 3-0 lead, she won that set on tie-break six points to one and then twice broke her serve in the second.’I played much better today,’ said Bammer afterwards.
‘I prefer playing against Sofia, it suits my style of play.
She has a powerful serve and a very good backhand.
But yesterday I didn’t play so well.’While her semi-final had been a messy affair 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 against No 2 seed, France’s Severine Beltrame, Arvidsson had beaten fellow Swede Hanna Nooni more comprehensively 7-6, 6-2.On paper, at least, it should have been an easy win for Arvidsson, playing against Bammer, 127 places, in terms of world-ranking, beneath her.However, from the start the Austrian player, who took two years out to start a family before returning to the professional circuit, took the game to the taller, more powerfully-built Swedish player.For while Arvidsson tried to move Bammer around the court, the more tenacious Austrian was returning the ball sweetly over the net, powering the ball left-handedly, or with a sweet, two-handed return, which had the game done and dusted before 12 o’clock.After that decisive first set tie break, Bammer even moved up a gear, going 3-1 up despite being 0-30 down in the third game.Then, perhaps the shot of the final came when Bammer took the fourth game, dinking the ball over with a delicate drop shot to the right of Arvidsson to make it 4-1 before she calmly went 5-1 ahead, her body language clearly showing she was keen to end the match.That she did, although Arvidsson held her serve at 5-2 before she was finally swept away, 6-2, without too many hiccups in between.’The last time I played Sofia I lost to her,’ said Bammer.
‘This time I am going to give it one year, to see how far I can go.
My daughter and my boyfriend travel with me.
After this year, who knows?’Having travelled to Les Ormes from Portugal, her next tournament on the LTA circuit is Cardiff, next week.
Arvidsson, meanwhile, moves on to Luxembourg.The doubles final, between Arvidsson and Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi and Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger and Nooni, was won by the Swedish/Estonian pairing 6-3, 7-5.
