Kiki Bertens felt fortunate to escape a tough semi-final at the WTA tournament in South Carolina, so she wasn't going to let things get so tight later on Sunday in the final.
Bertens of the Netherlands overpowered Germany's Julia Goerges to cap a long, chilly Sunday with a 6-2 6-1 victory for her fourth career title and third of the past 11 months.
Bertens outlasted American Madison Keys as the WTA's first clay-court event of the season had to double up on play after rain Saturday washed out most of the semi-finals action.
Bertens saved a match point in the third set before prevailing in tiebreaker 6-4 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5).
Preparing for Goerges several hours later, world No.27 Bertens thought: "OK, you could already have lost this morning, so just give everything and try to go for it," she said.
"And yeah, now I'm here with the trophy."
Perhaps the most important one of the 26-year-old's career.
"I'm just so happy and proud, I think, of myself," Bertens said.
"It's a great start of the clay court season, and yeah, hopefully still more to come."
Goerges needed only about 25 minutes to record a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 semi win over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova, after the match was tied at 4-4 in the opening set Saturday before the rain came.
But she could not handle the firepower of Bertens in the decider and was beset by uncharacteristic errors.
"I think that semi-final took a lot of mental effort out of me," Goerges said.
