Guangzhou, China – Seventh seed Chanelle Scheepers of South 2, 6-2 victory over seeded Magdalena Rybarikova in Saturday's final at the $220,000 Guangzhou International tennis event.
The 27-year-old Scheepers, who played for the South African Fed Cup team from 2002-05, broke into the top 100 after reaching the fourth round at the French Open earlier this year. Before this tournament, her best result was a quarterfinal showing in Kuala Lumpur in 2010.
"All of my other matches were really tough, but today was the day everything seemed to click," Scheepers said. "I thought I was hitting my groundstrokes well today. I was really consistent and tried to move her around. I didn't give her a lot of mistakes. I played well."
Scheepers is the first South African to win a WTA title since Amanda Coetzer captured an event in Acapulco in 2003.
The 22-year-old Rybarikova was competing in her third career final. The Slovakian captured her second career title in Memphis earlier this year. Rybarikova's first career title came in Birmingham in 2009, and she beat Scheepers in the round of 32 at that particular event.
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