Strong winds played havoc with her skirt and brought her a warning for time-wasting but Elena Vesnina rose above the problems to win her second WTA Tour title on the grass of Eastbourne on Saturday, beating American qualifier Jamie Hampton 6-2 6-1. The Devonshire Park courts at the southern English seaside resort, always known for windy conditions, proved especially tricky for finals day and Vesnina was warned for taking too long to serve early in the second set as she tried to stop her skirt flapping. When the Russian complained, umpire Mariana Alves told her: "I understand, but we can't wait forever." Afterwards, Vesnina was all smiles, saying her first tour win, in Hobart in January, had come in similar conditions. "Before I hated to play in the wind, I was struggling so much, but now I just love it," she told a courtside interviewer. The 36th-ranked Vesnina, who won the French Open doubles title with Ekaterina Makarova this month, picked up a cheque for $117,000 (75,835 pounds) for the Aegon International win which she said gave her "a lot of confidence and positive emotions" for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday. Frenchman Gilles Simon, seeded second, was playing Spain's Feliciano Lopez in the men's final in Eastbourne later. |
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