Andrea Petkovic won the fourth tournament of her career Sunday with a straight-sets victory over American qualifier Shelby Rogers at the Nurnberger Gastein Ladies.
Petkovic won 6-3, 6-3 at the WTA International clay-court event in Bad Gastein, Austria. She broke her opponent six times in the match. It was the players' first meeting.
Rogers, 21, is from South Carolina. She is a four-time winner on the lower-tier ITF circuit. She hadn't beaten a top-50 player until this tournament. She knocked off No. 16-ranked Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 40 Camila Giorgi and No. 14 Sara Errani, all in straight sets.
"I had an incredible time," Rogers said. "This has definitely been a week I will never forget."
Rogers struggled to find the momentum that had seen her beat Sara Errani, Camila Giorgi and Carla Suarez Navarro in previous rounds, and she had no answer to Petkovic's power.
The German won 82 percent of points on her first serve in the opening set and, with two breaks, she moved ahead in the match after only 38 minutes.
"I wanted this victory so badly," Petkovic said. "I am very relieved. Shelby played very aggressive tennis. I didn't know her game but I've done some research on YouTube."
Any fight Rogers had seemed to ebb away after that disappointment and she lost the opening three games of the second set.
With an uphill challenge ahead of her Rogers was able to come back to 3-2, only to see Petkovic take command.
Petkovic converted 50 percent of the break points she created, while Rogers' six double faults aided Petkovic's cause.
After only 73 minutes on court Petkovic was celebrating her second win at the tournament, having previously been crowned champion in 2009.