Anett Kontaveit wins 2022 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in thriller with Sakkari

Anett Kontaveit defeated Maria Sakkari 5-7 7-6(4) 7-5 in the St. Petersburg final to win her 6th career title.

Sakkari did not play a brilliant event in Russia and complicated quite a few of her matches before the final. Nonetheless, she showed maturity and patience eventually pulling through and securing the final. Heading into the final she wasn't considered the favourite simply because Kontaveit has been superb recently indoors.

Initially, it seemed like Kontaveit would continue that streak as the Estonian player was up early frustrating Sakkari with some tremendous shot-making. She was up 5-2 and in full control. Something changed after that because Kontaveit started missing a bit more which gave Sakkari confidence. She broke back to make it 5-5 and actually pulled ahead and won the opening set with 7-5.

Sakkari started playing much better with Kontaveit missing and rushing quite a bit. The Greek player was up 2-0 with a chance to go up 3-0 but Kontaveit held and broke back to make it 3-3. Eventually, we ended up in the tiebreak with Kontaveit winning it 7-4. Contrary to usual, Sakkari pulled herself together and came out on fire in the 3rd set jumping out to a 3-0 lead.

Sakkari extended that lead to 5-2 but Kontaveit was able to battle back from that and make it 5-5. It was a brilliant match up until that point but it's hard to argue against the fact that Sakkari controlled the match in both the 2nd and 3rd set but threw away both of those sets by melting down in key moments. She was very close to winning her first trophy since 2019 in Rabat but ultimately watched Kontaveit lift her 6th.