Playing her fourth WTA singles final, world No.51 Kristina Mladenovic of France survived two nervous patches that made her fail to serve out the match before squeezing past Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-2 6-7(3) 6-4 in the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy final.
After confidently winning the first set in 41 minutes, Mladenovic raced to a 5-2 lead in the second set, but choked when serving for her first WTA title at 5-3 and handed Putintseva her first break in the match. The world No.34 Putintseva, whose route to the final included stunning victories over two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and world No.