The No.3-seeded Knapp didn't drop a set all week and continued that in the final, cruising in the first set then taking a 65-minute second set to topple the top-seeded Jovanovski, 6-2, 7-6(4).
"I was up 4-2 in the second set and I was feeling a little stressed after she got back to 4-all," Knapp said. "But I decided to stay mentally tough and keep going for my strokes, and it worked." Having shown a ton of promise during the 2007 and 2008 seasons, highlighted by her first WTA final at Antwerp in 2008 and setting a career-high of No.35 shortly afterwards, Knapp had some major struggles the following years, first having to get surgery for a longstanding heart condition and taking an extended break from the tour later that year, and then several struggles with her knee. But Knapp came full circle in 2013 - having fallen as low as No.616 a few years before, she returned to the Top 40 at the end of the year, going as high as No.39. And though she hasn't been able to go any higher in 2014 she does now have something she never had before - the first WTA title of her career. "I can't say how happy I am right now," Knapp said. "I've had five surgeries, so many months of lay-offs in the last six years, in and out of tennis the last two years due to bad knee problems - but I knew it was possible for me to win a WTA event one day, and I'm so happy I could do it here in Tashkent.
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