Bouzkova tops Navarro in Nottingham to capture first grass-court title

Marie Bouzkova added a new milestone to her resume on Sunday, defeating Emma Navarro 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2 to win the Nottingham Open and capture her first career grass-court title.

Meeting for the first time on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, Bouzkova and Navarro stayed level through a tightly contested opening set. Both players traded two breaks before Bouzkova edged the tiebreak 7-5 to take the lead.

Navarro responded by breaking serve in the fifth game of the second set and maintained her advantage the rest of the way, taking the set 6-4 to level the match.

In the final set, Bouzkova won the first two games -- both lengthy battles that combined for 28 points -- to seize momentum. Leading 5-2, she broke Navarro once again to complete the victory after 2 hours, 57 minutes.

"Just a pure fight," Bouzkova said after the win. "I just tried to stay aggressive as much as possible and be the first one to dictate the point, but obviously I'm not playing so well so it wasn't easy at all, I just tried to stay there and stay really tough at the beginning of the third set."

The victory gave Bouzkova her fourth career singles title and improved her record to 4-6 in tour-level singles finals.

The final was the longest on the tour this season, surpassing the previous mark of 2 hours, 50 minutes set in Bogota, where Bouzkova also lifted the trophy.

"Well, just keep going, it's everyday hard work and I'm just trying to keep building on it day by day and making the most of every day, so that's kind of my goal and that's what I did today," Bouzkova said on her goals for the second half of the season.