Will Kiki crush it again?

Reigning VCO champ Kiki Bertens returns to defend title

When we last saw Kiki Bertens in Charleston, she was about to head out of town with a smile on her face, a $137,250 check in her purse and the use of a Volvo SUV for two years, the spoils of being the 2018 Volvo Car Open champion.

Bertens entered last year’s tournament with the world No. 27 ranking and she’s been in overdrive ever since, and not just because of her sporty new ride.

Bertens left the Holy City as the first Dutch woman to win the title in the event’s illustrious 46-year history, and she returns as one of the top players in the world. She was the world No. 9 when play began in the Miami Open last week.

Bertens won in Charleston the hard way, and her fifth WTA singles title took double duty as rained wiped out play on Saturday’s semifinal round last April.

Bertens, who was the No. 12 seed in the VCO last year, won a gut-check match that lasted three hours against No. 5 seed Madison Keys on Sunday morning and later on in the day, she lifted the championship trophy to the sky after disposing of German Julia Goerges 6-2, 6-1, in a match that didn’t even last an hour.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Bertens said in a press conference after her double-duty day. “I think I cannot really realize it yet, but I’m just so happy and proud. It’s a great start of the clay-court season, and yeah, hopefully still more to come, but this one I have already and I’m really happy with that.”

There was definitely more to come.

She reached the round of 32 at Roland Garros and had an excellent transition to the grass-court schedule. She reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in mid-summer.

Bertens, seeded No. 20 in England, defeated No. 9 seed Venus Williams 6-2, 6-7, 8-6 in the Round of 32 and swept Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-6.

However, Bertens couldn’t sustain the momentum in the quarterfinal against Georges, the foe she defeated in the Volvo Car Open championship. She won the first set, but ended up on the wrong side of three-set decision.

While the Volvo Car Open is prestigious, her biggest victory of last year came in Cincinnati, at the Western & Southern Open, where she was crowned champion. She defeated Elina Svitolina and Caroline Wozniacki along the way, and took down Simona Halep in the finals to earn $530,000 in prize money and 900 WTA rankings points.

She concluded the year with a semifinal appearance in the WTA Championships and earned another big paycheck.

She finished 2018 in the top 10 for the first time, checked in at No. 9. In addition to titles in Charleston and Cincinnati, Bertens also won in Seoul.

Her success continued with the new calendar year. She owned a 12-6 record as of March 20, and won her eighth WTA title with a victory over Donna Vecik in St. Petersburg.

Bertens also fared well in Indian Wells. She reached the fourth round of the event for the first time after a challenging 7-6 (10), 6-4 victory over Great Britain’s Johanna Konta. But she fell to former world No.1 Garbine Muguruza in the Round of 16.

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