Friedsam scrapes past titles

The WTA tournament in Lyon had become a great triumph for Anna-Lena Friedsam. But the German missed her first title.

Tennis player Anna-Lena Friedsam missed her first title on the WTA Tour.

The World Rankings-136th from Neuwied lost to Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin in the finals of the 275,000 dollar indoor tournament in Lyon despite a strong performance with 2:6, 6:4, 4:6 and claimed her second final defeat at a WTA tournament. Friedsam’s first appearance in the final was in October 2015, when she was defeated by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in the final in Linz.

Due to the defeat, Friedsam not only missed the first tournament victory of a German since Julia Görges in October 2018 in Luxembourg, but also has to wait for her return to the top 100 in the world ranking list. She achieved her best result so far (45th) in August 2016, before she was thrown back by injuries.

Friedsam loses against Kenin
In the first set, the 26-year-old did not score a single break point and had to give up her serve twice. In the second set, Friedsam increased her game and first managed to break back. After 1:51 hours Kenin used her third match point to win.

In the course of the tournament, Friedsam had become the favorite scare in Lyon. On her way to the semi-finals she defeated, among others, local hero Kristina Mladenovic, number two on the seeded list, Darja Kassatkina from Russia, who was seeded seven times, and Viktoria Kuzmova from Slovakia, who was ranked eighth.